Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/367

Rh which surrounds him, as the result of the wonderfully increased facilities for the transportation and exchange of commodities. He can no longer claim that the empirical knowledge of farming he may possess is the only consistent guide in practice, and he can not safely ignore the many lessons presented in the marked progress and revolutions that have been made in other industries, or the manifold benefits he may derive from the wide circle of sciences, which are now in their rapid development suggesting important applications in every interest and process of the farm.

Practice and science must go hand in hand, with the most hearty co-operation, if the problems in farm management arising from the world's progress and the consequent depression in prices are to be successfully solved. Every hint which the latest discoveries in science may present for his consideration must be closely studied, and its relations to practice carefully determined, or the best results can not be obtained. From the complexity and interdependence of all agricultural processes and their intimate relations to every department of science, it must be admitted that there is no business or profession in which so wide a range of knowledge can be profitably made use of as in farming.

The ruts followed by narrow specialists, and the ultra-conservatism of the so-called "practical men," are alike to be avoided, if real progress in the practice of agriculture is made. A broad and liberal culture, with special training and aptness for the work, is required in dealing with the practical applications of the latest contributions of science, as no department of research can be safely neglected in the broad field which embraces such widely different interests; and this fact must be fully recognized in the management of our agricultural colleges, or they will fail to accomplish the end for which they were established.

In the popular discussion of manual training in schools as a phase of the modern demand for industrial education, there is danger that too much stress will be laid upon the assumed advantages of manual dexterity as a preparation for acquiring some handicraft or trade, and that its real value as a factor in mental development and discipline will be overlooked in the efforts to give a practical bias to an elementary course of instruction.

A brief glance at some of the conditions under which the world's work is now performed will make it evident that breadth of culture and thorough training in methods of scientific investigation are of greater importance than manual dexterity in any special direction. The trades or handicrafts which formerly required an apprenticeship of several years for their mastery are now, in effect, made nearly obsolete by the invention of machinery, and specialization in the processes of production, together