STATE CONVENTION—INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 263 
The second and most important effort of educational reformers 
'has been to widen the aim of education. Instead of this general 
merely fundamental discipline, the simple intellectual culture, 
which fitted a man to begin the study of any profession with no 
particular advantage for any one, they have sought to add or in¬ 
corporate a partial technical training, which will fit the student for 1 
some particular calling, giving him the advantage of instruction 
in overcoming the practical difficulties he will meet in the active 
discharge of the duties of his chosen profession. This effort at 
reform has led to the establishment of Agricultural or Industrial 
•Colleges, which aim to teach the applications of science as well as 
its fundamental principles. And although it may be too soon to 
form a correct estimate of the real value of these efforts, we think 
we are safe in saying that the sanguine expectations of their advo¬ 
cates have not been fully met. It will be our endeavor to give 
:Some of the reasons for this partial failure. 
The first aud most important error is that these Schools have 
attempted too little. Nothing can ever take the place of thorough 
intellictual discipline. A technical school must be considered as 
a supplement to a college, and cannot be made by any means to 
take its place. Courses in applied Science must succeed, not take 
the place of courses in general Science. An Agricultural College 
ought to mean a College based upon and superior to the ordinary 
•college. Agriculture cannot be made to take its rank with the 
other professions until the attainment of it costs an equal amount 
of time and money, and the successful practice of it demands an 
equal grade of talent. The aim of these schools has been to 
change the farmer and the artizan from being mere mechanical 
imitators to thoughtful scientific workers, by placing in their 
hands the results of scientific discovery. The partial failure in 
which these attempts have resulted has not been due to any fault 
inherent in the plan, but to the fact that insufficient time was 
allowed for the complete working of the plan, and to compensate 
for this want of time, the attempt was made of teaching the 
■applications of science, before a sufficient knowledge of general 
science had been gained. Such attempts must always prove 
futile because applied science can be taught only after the general 
principles of science have been mastered. A real Agricultural 
