58 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY . 
pertain to agriculture is to know nearly all natural science. And 
of all arts to which science is applied, no other is so difficult, 
because there is no other in which so many conditions are be¬ 
yond man’s knowledge and control. 
The heat, the moisture, the evaporation, the physical condition 
and chemical constitution of the soil, and the relations of the at¬ 
mosphere and of the soil respectively, to plant growth, are all vari¬ 
able elements that give complexity to the applications of science 
to agriculture. 
To the question, “ What course of study would best meet the 
wants of a student in agriculture?” this reply, then, might be 
given: That which, while it teaches him the science he wishes to 
apply, also gives him that thorough culture that will enable him 
to use all his mental powers in the application of such knowledge. 
There is, however, this practical difficulty. To get such an edu¬ 
cation requires several years of study, and few farmers are willing • 
to give their sons the time and means required for such a training. 
The dilemma in which these agricultural colleges are placed, 
then, is this. To get the greatest good from them, the students 
need a fair degree of previous training, while the farmers, not fully 
realizing the necessity of such knowledge, will not give their sons 
the benefit the college offers, because of the time required to gain 
this practical instruction. 
That other studies than those that are simply of practical value 
(in the narrow and restricted sense of being practical) are neces¬ 
sary in an industrial college course, is not simply the vague notion 
of some theorist. It is found to be true in the experience of all 
these colleges throughout the country. The course of some of 
them was reduced, a few years since, to a two years’ course of only 
“ practical ” studies. But this change was soon found to be-an 
impracticable one, and the four years’ course was re-established. 
The Lawrence Scientific School, connected with Harvard Uni¬ 
versity, has for several years given degrees to students who pur¬ 
sued a special course, embracing but one department of science, 
as of chemistry or of zoology. 
This rendered students expert in one department, and had they 
been thoroughly prepared by previous study, would have given 
them an excellent training as scientists. But coming, as theyfre- 
