Miscellaneous, 



ma 



[March, 1912. 



It is the subject matter that should 

 engage the attention of the agricul- 

 tural student concerning which we are 

 likely to differ most widely in opinion. 

 Those who p.re seeking for members of 

 a faculty or station staff ate bound to 

 concede that, as a rule, altogether too 

 many graduates are poorly trained for 

 these positions, largely because they 

 are poorly fitted in the sciences funda- 

 mental to the line of work in which 

 they offer themselves. 



For instance, candidates for positions 

 in horticulture are generally obliged to 

 confess a woeful lack of acquaintance 

 with physiological botany. Those sup- 

 posed to be specially trained in animal 

 nutrition rarely have the necessary 

 knowledge of organic and biological 

 chemistry, and graduates in agronomy 

 are likely to be more familiar with super- 

 ficial facts than with soil chemistry and 

 the science of plant nutrition. Judging 

 cattle, corn and fruit ; grafting trees, 

 visiting orchards, calculating rations are 

 exercises of small training value, even 

 small vocational value, compared with 

 severe attention to tbe processes of 

 of nature that underlie agricultural prac- 

 tice of all kinds. If many of the col- 

 leges expect to give their graduates a 

 good start on the road to success as 

 teachers and station workers they should 

 seriously consider a curriculum that 

 deals more largely with the fundamental 

 sciences and less with agricultural tech- 

 nics as a superstructure. 



And should not the same policy be 

 followed with those who are to enter 

 practical agriculture ? A fact of funda- 

 mental importance in this connection is 

 that the farmer is equipped for success 

 in farm practice not so much through 

 expert handicraft as through a know- 

 ledge of conditions that determine the 

 successsful growth of plants and ani- 

 mals ; in other words, an acquaintance 

 with nature's processes. The mechanical 

 details of agricultuie are comparatively 

 simple, but the control of nature's re- 

 sources is complex and difficult. With 

 great respect for the opinions of those 

 who hold opposite views, I am constrain- 

 ed to express tbe conviction that the 

 man is best prepared for the life of a 

 farmer who knows the most a bout the 

 fundamental sciences and their relation 

 to his vocation, and for this reason 

 I can but regard the time as com- 

 paratively inefficiently spent that is 

 devoted in college to observations and 

 exercises of an ultra practical character, 

 or to gaining information that is easily 

 acquired from the ordinary experiences 

 of practical life. This doctrine may be 

 reactionary but it is in accordance with 



movements now in progress in other 

 vocational schools. We have fallen into 

 the error, it is to be feared, of regarding 

 the student mind as a storage tank for 

 useful facts rather than as an instiu- 

 ment to be fashioned into soundness and 

 efficiency. We must never forget that 

 the farmer is comprehended in the man. 

 And when we realize that many of the 

 graduates of these institutions will exert 

 a dominating influence upon the mental 

 and moral development of young men 

 and women, we see a most important 

 reason why their education should not 

 be confined to the narrow line of tech- 

 nical training. And above all, as has 

 been urged these graduates are to be 

 members of society. 



After all, what are the supreme ob- 

 jects of education? It has been reported, 

 though I do not credit the statement, 

 that a member of an agricultural college 

 faculty once declared that the business 

 of his institution was to bring about the 

 production of more hogs at greater pro- 

 fit. If this remark was made, what a 

 spectacle it pictures ! It places the hog 

 at the pinnacle of educational aspiration 

 with man as a lesser figure. In sharp 

 contrast to this gross conception of 

 educational ideals stand the sentiments 

 of great minds who have seen broadly 

 and clearly the larger issues of life. 



Hill says of education that it should 

 "quicken a man's mental perceptions, 

 form in him the habit of prompt and 

 accurate judgment ; lead to delicacy and 

 depth in every right feeling and make 

 him inflexible in his conscientious and 

 steadfast devotion to all his duties.' 

 Milton wrote that "the main skill and 

 groundwork of education will be to 

 temper the pupils with such lectures 

 and explanations as will draw them into 

 willing obedience influenced with the 

 study of learning and the admiration of 

 virtue stirred up with high hopes of 

 living to be brave men and worthy 

 patriots." 

 Listen to Mill :— 



"The moral or religious influence 

 which a university can exercise consists 

 less in any express teaching than in the 

 pervading tone of the place. Whatever 

 it teaches it should teach as penetrated 

 by a sense of duty ; it should present 

 all knowledge as chiefly a means of 

 worthiness in life, given for the double 

 purpose of making each of us practically 

 useful to our fellow creatures and of 

 elevating the character of the species 

 itself." 



W. H.JORDAN. 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, 



Geneva, N, T, 



