March, 1912.] 



261 



Miscellaneous. 



ability to edify the farming public, 

 through a pleasing way of discussing 

 practical subjects, or who hustles about 

 doing things, is not our vision of the 

 scholar as an essential factor in agricul- 

 tural education and inquiry somewhat 

 obscured, and if scholarship is to be 

 discounted in favor of qualities that 

 make for popularity, we may well* be 

 solicitous concerning the standards and 

 effectiveness of agricultural instruction 

 a statement that is equally applicable 

 to experiment stations as instruments of 

 research. 



It is a gross error to permit a young 

 man, or any man, to believe that success 

 with the people in conducting agricul- 

 tural propaganda, or the possession of 

 superficially built and glibly expressed 

 practical knowledge unsupported by a 

 sound scientific training, constitutes an 

 adequate reason why he should be a mem- 

 ber of a college faculty or a station staff. 

 Success in the energy-consuming acti- 

 vities of the institute platform, the fair 

 exhibit, the railroad train or the demon- 

 stration field is not an evidence of fitness 

 for class room or research work. We 

 are guilty of a false estimate of values 

 when we place a salary premium or any 

 other premium on success in distributing 

 diluted information, however valuable 

 this effort may be, as against the func- 

 tion and influence of the quiet and 

 patient scholar. 



If the college is to nourish the moral 

 character of a student the teacher must 

 be something more than a scholar. 

 Character will not be much influenced 

 by directly aiming at such a result 

 through the teaching of ethics. Much 

 more potent will be the general tone or 

 atmosphere of college halls, an atmos- 

 phere that emanates from the teacher. 

 In his hands, teaching the science should 

 not only promote scientific accuracy, but 

 should nourish integrity of thought and 

 purpose. All the exercises of the class 

 room should be pervaded by the ethical 

 spirit. For these reasons the standards 

 by which a faculty is selected should 

 include something more than the posses- 

 sion of good character, and the necessary 

 professional qualifications. The human 

 attributes of the teacher are no less 

 important. 



We may consider certain dangers 

 to college instruction arising from exten- 

 sion work. This work on the part of 

 the college teacher is a menace to his 

 efficiency, because such activities not 

 only use the physical eneigy that should 

 be reserved for the class room, but 

 sooner or later they minimize or destroy 

 the habit of study and the spirit of 

 scholarship, The man who serves for 



any considerable part of his time as a 

 purveyor of popular information is 

 almost certain not to present to his 

 students the latest and best knowledge 

 in the best way, or to add much to the 

 stock of knowledge. 



Another danger to the teacher from a 

 diversion of his thought to extension 

 work of the popular kind is that unless 

 he possesses unusual self-discipline and 

 control, he will carry to the class room 

 more or less of the loose and dilute phra- 

 seology of platform discussion and will 

 to a greater or less extent depart from 

 the concise and severe terminology so 

 essential to the best training ccnditions. 



These are most unfortuate results. We 

 should carefully guard and cherish the 

 intellectual impulses and equipment of 

 the teacher and the investigator, because 

 they are the instruments whose edge 

 must be fine if we are to be successful 

 in rightly fashioning the minds and 

 hearts of young men and women and 

 in laying open the hidden recesses of 

 truth. 



What has been said concerning the 

 qualities of the teacher a nd the necessity 

 for defending him against the invasion 

 of outside duties applies with equal force 

 to the investigator. The Experiment 

 Stations here represented, founoed as re- 

 search agencies, have rendered splendid 

 service to agriculture and are now firmly 

 established in the confidence of the 

 people. Nevertheless, we should not let 

 the popularity of these institutions 

 cloud our vision or confuse our estimate 

 of the real character of tneir work. They 

 have mightily stirred the mass of agri- 

 cultural knowledge, have conducted 

 an extensive propaganda of existing 

 information, have recast old facts and 

 principles into new and profitable appli- 

 cations and have made some explorations 

 of real value into the unknown, all of this 

 to the great benefit of the farmer and 

 his business. But the period through 

 which we have been passing can justly 

 be characterized as much more marked 

 for its development of agencies and fcr 

 its distributim of existing information 

 than for its permanent additions to 

 agricultural science. 



Moreover, leaving out of account the 

 extensive dispersion of the time and 

 energy of experiment station workers 

 into the highways and byways of agri- 

 cultural extension and considering only 

 our attempts at investigation, it may 

 reasonably be doubted whether broadly 

 speaking, our efforts of inquiry have 

 been conducted on a plan of spirit and 

 method as high as that reached by the 

 investigators of an earlier period. It 



