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of hasty generalization from insufficient data. In other words, station directors and 
workers have been human beings working along comparatively unfamiliar lines. 
Granting all this and much more, the good already accomplished is very great. 
There lias been accumulation of a great mass of useful facts, and the clear formula- 
tion of many important principles. These have been widely distributed. They 
have affected our agricultural literature. The subjects discussed and, still more, the 
method of discussing these subjects in agricultural papers has been modified. A 
few days since I examined a recent work on a practical agricultural subject by a 
practical farmer. Every chapter, almost every page, contains references to or quo- 
tations from the bulletins of experiment stations as worthy of highest resjiect. 
Already agricultural practice is being affected, and for good. 
The successes of the past stimulate us for the future. The mistakes and failures 
of the past must never be an excuse or a reason for lessened effort. They may warn 
us to change our methods, but can not be a reason for lessened effort to accomplish a 
work laid upon us. Some day, somehow, somewhere, the problem of fully popular- 
izing agricultural education is to be solved, and solved for America. 
I plead, then, for persistent, hopeful work in both college and station, and along 
two lines of work in each. In the colleges let us strengthen the agricultural courses. 
Let there be shorter, more elementary courses also, but in each agricultural college, 
whether there be few or many Avho seek it, let there be facilities for education and 
training in agriculture the full equal of the facilities for an education along any 
other line. Let there be more, not less, of science; more, not less, of culture, if time 
permit; but in an agricultural college let us magnify the teaching of agriculture. 
There are great difficulties. In these colleges we are seeking to give two educa- 
tions in four years — sometimes starting with only the education gained in the public 
schools — a general and a professional one. A supposed or superficial familiarity 
with agricultural subjects tends to lessen interest in their study. There has been a 
lack of definition of what the teacher of agriculture may properly teach. On the 
one hand he has often felt obliged to teach a wider range of subjects than anyone 
could thoroughly master. On the other hand he has sometimes felt warned off from 
a full discussion of almost any part of agriculture, on the ground that he is trench- 
ing fields belonging to the " scientist." He has sometimes been expected to impart 
only details of practice. 
And, as one who has given years to this work, I may be permitted to name as one 
chief difficulty in the way of successful, popular teaching of agriculture, the lack 
of knowledge of how best to teach it. I can think of no greater help to the cause 
of distinctive agricultural education than may be expected to come from systematic, 
perhaps long-continued, study, by some of the best men in the work, of methods of 
teaching agriculture — in the broad meaning of the word — and tbe devising of appa- 
ratus for use in such teaching. Some of us have paid far too little attention to the 
study of methods of teaching in general. Most of us know almost nothing of meth- 
ods of teaching agriculture, except what we learned from the practice of our own 
teachers or from our own experience. 
Aside from the value of a study of agriculture as a help to more successfully prac- 
ticing it, I believe it can be so taught as to be not only as interesting but have as 
much disciplinary value as almost any other study, but this can only be done by those 
who know how. 
An appreciation of the importance of better systematized methods of teaching agri- 
culture is not new with me. Years before this Association was organized I had the 
honor of suggesting and aiding in the organization of a modest society of teachers 
of agriculture and horticulture, the chief object of which, in my own mind, was to 
help its members to better teach their specialties. The society met annually for sev- 
eral years. Wo enjoyed much; we learned much; but little directly along this 
special line. 
I am sure that all engaged in the work feel the need of which I have spoken. 
A letter recently received from Professor Hunt, of the Ohio State University, whose 
