culturist stale and unprofitable in the British Isles. We thrust our plowshares into the rich soil of the valleys of Virginia and the name "planter" became a synonym for "opulence"; but now these lands are too sterile to repay cultivation. In spite of all his thrift and industry the land of the Yankee has its abandoned farms. In many other states of this, the greatest of all agricultural lands, there are vast areas that yield to the husbandman constantly diminishing returns for his toil. It appears that this Aryan race during the centuries crossed the continents, like a mighty swarm of locusts, alighting on fruitful fields, from which it extracted the fertility, and passed on, leaving poverty and barrenness in its track; or as if it had trod with hot feet across the continents, burning out the fertility of the soil. If the teaching of agriculture can lessen this blighting effect, who can doubt that it should be given in the public schools?

SOIL STERILITY NOT A NECESSARY RESULT OF CULTIVATION

Do you ask, "Is not sterility the inevitable result of cultivation, and of the dwelling of great numbers of people on any land?" Not at all. The plains of China from the early dawn of history have maintained more than one-fourth of all the human beings who dwell upon this globe. And all their food has been produced by the ground upon which they live.

Besides this great example it has also been demonstrated that an ideal system of agriculture maintains itself; that it is able to thrive forever upon the same land, and from its own resources. The land becomes more productive with time, and this without the aid of any fertilizing material except that produced by the land, or with comparatively little else. What could be of greater practical value than to teach to those who are to become the farmers of America this ideal system of agriculture? All over this country, with rare exceptions, agricultural work is carried on in a more or less wasteful, neglectful, and destructive manner. The fertility of the soil, the accumulations of vast periods of time, is being recklessly exhausted-in some places has already been exhausted-by destructive methods. Fungous parasites, through ignorance, are permitted to greatly reduce the yields of our cereals. Insects destructive to fruits and berries are permitted to multiply till those necessities to health which should be for all are only within the reach of the few. Forests that held a rich soil upon the hillsides are destroyed and the soil washed away never to be replaced. Native grasses valuable for grazing are destroyed, and no others can be found to take their places.

A few years ago it was not known how to remedy these and other errors, but recently there have been vast additions to human knowledge. along all lines pertaining to agriculture. Probably in no other field of man's endeavor has there been as great progress as here. Experts and students at the various state and United States agricultural experiment

stations and in similar institutions in other countries, and thoughtful, patient, and careful men and women in their orchards, dairies, gardens, and homes, have made many discoveries and established many facts which in the aggregate constitute an immense mass of valuable, useful, and interesting knowledge. These facts relate to nearly everything pertaining to household and farm life- the cultivation of various crops, the feeding and care of animals, the destruction of insect enemies, the preservation of insect friends, and the like. These facts are accessible and should be carried to the people. What other or better or more suitable means are there than the public schools? For instance: It is said that the codling moth and the curculio damage our apple crop to the extent of millions and millions of dollars annually, and that, taken at the right time, all this loss can easily be prevented. What could be more practical than to teach the children to destroy these pests? Near by nearly every schoolhouse is an orchard, and、a spraying apparatus would cost less and would be quite as educative and as easily manipulated as many of the gimcracks found in some schools.

HIGH PEDAGOGICAL VALUE

No other teaching squares more nicely with accepted pedagogical ideas. It deals with those things with which the farm-reared child is already familiar. It is largely a training of the senses. It enters consciousness by every avenue to the soul-hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling, feeling. It deals with things and not with words alone. It relates to what is near and not to that which is afar. Its lessons are on the lawn, in the treetop, in the shower, and by the roadside. It does not deal with abstractions, but with concrete, living, growing things; with the flowers and plants, and colts, and lambs, and birds that are growing with the child; for growing together is the meaning of the word concrete.

Agriculture is pre-eminently the study that cultivates the habit of observation, that keeps the pupil on the lookout with his senses wide awake and keen for whatever is presented. It teaches him to see what is worth observing, and not to overvalue what is simply odd or curious. It teaches him that effect follows cause; that we live under a reign of law; that all phenomena have a natural cause; that all things exist for a purpose; and that "Nothing vain nor useless is." It prevents the growth of superstition, and gives freedom from groundless fears and baseless hopes. When studied in garden and field and forest, as of course it should be, agriculture gives full play to all the motor activities.

WILL IMPROVE THE FARMERS

The teaching of agriculture in the rural schools would have its highest value in its effect upon the farmer; for, while it is important to improve the farm, it is more important to improve the farmer. Farmers

are more than farms-souls than soils. A fuller knowledge of agriculture would greatly change the farmer. It would broaden his mind and deepen his way of thinking. His vocation would appear to him in a new aspect. Instead of walking blindly among the great forces of nature, as he now too often does - instead of looking upon nature as a great puzzle, that only perplexes, or bewilders, or discourages him- he would see order and beauty and law that would clarify his thinking and encourage and guide him to more successful doing.

Teach the children the lessons of the soil. Tell them the wonderful story of its origin, or, better still, let them tell you what they have seen in the field and by the brook, and then give them the charming explanation. Tell them why men plow and what are the reasons for cultivating the soil, and what methods of cultivation are beneficial and what are decidedly injurious. Tell them how the physical condition of the soil may affect its fertility; and tell them what elements have been taken. from the soil when it is worn out, and how to replace them. Tell them the marvelous story of the most important discovery of modern timesa discovery which places in the hands of every farmer a means, completely under his control, of drawing from the atmosphere the free nitrogen of the air, and of fixing it in any field he may wish to enrich. It is a story of minute organisms which are in the soil or if they are not there the farmer can put them there - which locate themselves upon the roots of certain plants and give these plants power to store up in their roots, to be left in the soil, its most valuable constituent of plant food, nitrogen.

Tell them what the tassel and the silk of the corn are, and why one is at the top of the stalk and the other very much below it. Tell them why the blossoms of corn, oats, rice, and wheat are colorless and odorless, and why the blossoms of cotton and the clovers are so beautifully colored, and why they have such exquisite perfume. Tell them what the bees and the bumblebees are doing, and of what superlative importance they are to the existence of many plants, and how they are most industriously serving man, a little by the honey they make, but vastly more in other ways; for they not only increase his apple, peach, and pear crop, but they also aid in adding fertility to the soil.

In the school garden for there should be a garden near every school - teach many of those devices by which fruits are propagated, and by which a new and desirable variety is multiplied and distributed. Very few of our most valuable fruits are propagated by seeds; in fact, some are without fertile seeds. There was never but one Brother Jonathan apple tree or Sudduth pear tree growing on its own roots. Explain to the children why the seedsman sells no strawberry seeds. Let the larger pupils understand plant breeding, as of corn, in their garden, and tell them about the efforts being made to produce better- better from a

dietary point of view-varieties of cereals, and also more hardy and more fruitful. The possibilities in plant-breeding are just dawning upon the farmer, and are as fascinating to him as are Marconi's discoveries to the telegrapher. Yet there is nothing here that a bright pupil might not apprehend. Nothing at any rate so difficult as the inverted divisor in arithmetic or the passive voice in grammar. Let the children observe how the young things of the farm gain knowledge. The young chick, and the colt, and the lamb, begin with minds all blank, and very rapidly they learn, so that shortly they are quite wise. Let children observe the means by which they gain this wisdom. A setting hen in the schoolroom to hatch her chicks and train them to eat, and to come at her bidding, and to scuttle away and hide when danger comes, would not be a bad beginning for the study of psychology. The successful management of farm animals requires an understanding of this law of their intellectual growth. "Intellect is the outgrowth from the simple reflex response to external conditions."

Let the children observe that all young animals upon the farm are at first without fear, and that the emotion of fear comes only to preserve from harm, and that if the young things meet no harm, and early receive kind usage, they will always be without fear. The application of this to the rearing of animals upon the farm will soon make a "happy family" of all. And the resulting kindliness of treatment which will be given to all farm animals will greatly enhance their value-increase the working years of the horse, the richness and the quality of milk from the cow, the rapidity with which weight on the fatting animals accumulates, and add greatly to the pleasure and the profit of those engaged in animal husbandry.

Who can doubt the practical value of teaching these things to those who are to be the future farmers of this land? Think how it would brighten the dull monotony of the lonesome little country school to teach the children to understand the things about them—the weeds by the roadside and the harm they do; the birds in the hedge and the good they do; the honey bee and the white clover, the bumblebee and the red clover, and the great value of the work they accomplish; the angleworm in the field and its work. These things for the child, and more complex things for the young man and the young woman of the farm, how they would change the mental and spiritual attitude of the future farmer toward his vocation! Instead of being either the discontented drudge longing to get to town, as he so often is, or of being the hard-fisted, grasping landgrabber, which some, alas, are, he would be a student working joyously and happily and successfully in that greatest of all laboratories — a wellkept farm.

DISCUSSION

Jesse D. Burks, assistant, department of Elementary Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York. The paper that has just been read may be summarized under four propositions: First, agriculture as a vocation is of fundamental importance in our national economy; second, there is pressing need for improved methods in agriculture; third, the subject-matter of agriculture may be organized on educational principles; fourth, there is a richness of subject-matter adapted to the increase of culture among the farming population.

The point of view here is that of the vocation. The thought is focused on a distinct industrial class. The practical value of the teaching of agriculture is said to lie in the economic betterment of the country and in the intellectual enlightenment of the farmers.

There is much soundness in this argument for the practical value of teaching agriculture in the public elementary schools, tho it is doubtful whether technical instruction in agricultural methods can be carried as far as proposed in the paper. I shall not attempt a discussion of this phase of the question, but shall pass immediately to the consideration of a far more significant problem, namely, what is the most fundamental and permanent value of teaching this subject in the public schools?

The answer to this question will vary according to the standard by which we measure the practical value. Mr. Carter has found his standard in the economic and intellectual welfare of the farming class, and has made his answer to accord with his standard. We might make an estimate of value upon a standard primarily financial, or strictly disciplinary, or upon a standard involving moral development in a narrow sense. Each of these standards has rightful claim to consideration, but each is inadequate. Evidently, we are compelled to face the problem of an ultimate educational standard before we can make an estimate of value that shall be full and final.

We find such a standard by considering what is most characteristically and truly human, and therefore most vitally and permanently valuable. It is a truism as old at least as Aristotle that man is by nature a social being. In our educational thought and practice we have, in a large measure, forgotten this important fact, and have gone far toward desocializing the school. The subjects of our curricula are far too commonly treated as if they were independent of human life. Geography and history and nature study are taught, not because they reveal significant aspects of social life, but because they are, for some mysterious reason, considered from our adult point of view as necessary for the mental training of children.

There is, however, a distinct turn in the tide. The truism above referred to, expanded and vitalized, embodies the best educational thought of the past twenty years. Thus amplifled, the phrase means that the chief business of education is to lead children into a sympathetic understanding of the great body of social relations that constitute the significant part of human life, and to develop capacity to control these relations. The affairs of family and neighborhood life; of commercial activity; of city, state, and national politics; the moral, economic, and political relations of man to man; the finer social relations expressed in literature and art- these are the realities with which education is properly concerned.

Geography is valuable, from this point of view, only so far as it enables us to understand and to control the physical background of social life. A geographical fact has social value when it determines to some extent social relations, such as habitation, industry, or political unity. Arithmetic possesses value, in a social sense, only when it enables us to gain a clearer vision of human relations, or to control more readily the affairs of social life. Just so any other subject must establish its right to a place in the public schools by showing that it can clarify the social understanding, stimulate the social sympathy, and increase the social vitality of the pupils. The final measure of educational value, then, is social power, which embraces social sense, or the capacity to