AGRICULTURE
=Agriculture a typical study.=--In the vitalized school the subject of
agriculture is typical and may profitably be elaborated somewhat by way
of illustrating the relation of a subject to school procedure. From
whatever angle we approach the subject of agriculture we find it
inextricably connected with human life. This fact alone gives to it the
rank of first importance. Its present prominence as a school study is
conclusive evidence that those who are charged with the responsibility
of administering the schools are becoming conscious of the need for
vitalizing them. Time was when arithmetic was regarded as the most
practical subject in the school and, therefore, it was given precedence
over all others. History, grammar, and geography were relegated to
secondary rank, and agriculture was not even thought of as a school
study. But as population increased and the problem of providing food
began to loom large in the public consciousness, the subject of
agriculture assumed an importance that rendered it worthy a place in the
school curriculum. It is a high tribute to the school that whenever any
subject takes hold of the public mind the school is thought of at once
as the best agency for promulgating that subject. The subjects of
temperance and military training aptly illustrate this statement of
fact.
=Its rapid development.=--So soon, therefore, as the subject of
agriculture became prominent in the public consciousness there ensued a
speedy development of colleges and schools of agriculture for the
training of teachers. This movement was prophetic of the plan and
purpose to incorporate this study in the school régime. And this
prophecy has been fulfilled, for the school now looks upon agriculture
as a basic study. True, we are as yet only feeling our way, and that for
the very good reason that the magnitude of the subject bewilders us. We
have written many textbooks on the subject that were soon supplemented
by better ones. The more the subject is studied, the more we appreciate
its far-reaching ramifications. We find it attaching itself to many
other subjects to which it seemed to have but remote relation in the
earlier stages of our study. In brief, we are now on the borderland of a
realization of the fact that agriculture is as broad as life and,
therefore, must embrace many other studies that have a close relation to
life.
=Relation to geology and other sciences.=--In the beginning, geology and
agriculture seemed far apart, but our closer study of agriculture has
revealed the fact that they are intimately related. It remained for
agriculture to lay the right emphasis upon geology. The study of the
composition and nature of the soil carried us at once to a study of its
origin and we found ourselves at the very door of geology. When we began
to inquire how the soil came to be where it is and what it is, we found
ourselves yearning for new and clearer lines of demarcation in science,
for we could scarcely distinguish between geology and physiography. We
soon traced our alluvial plains back to their upland origin, and then we
were compelled to explain their migration. This led us inevitably into
the realm of meteorology, for, if we omit meteorology, the chain is
broken and we lose our way in our search for the explanation we need.
But having availed ourselves of the aid of meteorology, we have a story
that is full of marvelous interest--the great story of the evolution of
the cornfield. In this story we find many alluring details of
evaporation, air movements, precipitation, erosion, and the attraction
of gravitation. But in all this we are but lingering in the anteroom of
agriculture.
=The importance of botany.=--Advancing but a single step we find
ourselves in the realm of botany, which is a field so vast and so
fascinating that men have devoted an entire lifetime to its wonders, and
then realized that they had but made a beginning in the way of exploring
its possibilities. In our own time Mr. Burbank has made his name known
throughout the world by his work in one phase of this subject, and a
score of other Burbanks might be working with equal success in other
branches of the subject and still not trench upon one another's domain.
Venturesome, indeed, would be the prophet who would attempt to predict
the developments in the field of botany in the next century in the way
of providing food, shelter, and clothing for the race. The possibilities
stagger the imagination and the prophet stands bewildered as he faces
this ever-widening field. But botany, vast as it is seen to be, is only
one of the branching sciences connected with agriculture.
=Physics and chemistry.=--Another advance brings us into the wide and
fertile field of physics and chemistry, for in these subjects we find
the means of interpreting much in agriculture that without their aid
would elude our grasp. We have only to resolve a grain of corn into its
component elements to realize the potency and scope of chemistry. Then
if we inquire into the sources of these elements as they have come from
the soil to form this grain of corn, the indispensability of a knowledge
of chemistry will become more apparent. In our explanations we shall
soon come upon capillary attraction, and the person is dull, indeed, who
does not stand in awe before the mystery of this subject. If we broaden
our inquiry so as to compass the evolution of an ear of corn, we shall
realize that we have entered upon an inquiry of vast and fascinating
import. The intricate and delicate processes of growth, combining, as
they do, the influences of sunshine and moisture and the conversion into
food products of elements whose origin goes back to primeval
times,--these processes are altogether worthy of the combined
enthusiasms of scientist and poet.
=Physiology.=--But no mention has been made, as yet, of the science of
physiology, which, alone, requires volumes. We have but to ask how wheat
is converted into brain power to come upon a realization of the
magnitude of the study of this science. We have only to relax the leash
of fancy to see that there are no limits to the excursions that may be
made in this field. If we allow fancy to roam, taking the _a posteriori_
course, we might begin with "Paradise Lost" and reach its sources in
garden and field, in orchard, and in pasture where graze flocks and
herds. But in any such fanciful meandering we should be well within the
limits of physiology, and should be trying to interpret the adaptation
of means to end, or, to use the language of the present, we should be
making a quest to determine how the products of field, orchard, and
pasture may be utilized that they may function in poetry, in oratory, in
discoveries, and in inventions. In short, we should be trying to explain
to ourselves how agriculture functions in life.
=Art as an auxiliary.=--In a recent work of fiction a chapter opens with
a picture of a little girl eating a slice of bread and butter which is
further surmounted by apple sauce and sugar. If the author of the book
"Agriculture and Life" had only caught a glimpse of this picture, he
might have changed the title of his book to "Life and Agriculture." He
certainly would have given to the life element far more prominence than
his book in its present form affords. His title makes a promise which
the book itself does not redeem, more's the pity. If science would use
art as an ally, it need not be less scientific, and its teachings would
prove far more palatable. The little girl with her bread and butter
would prove quite as apt as an introductory picture for a book on
agriculture as for a work of fiction. It matters not that agriculture
includes so many other sciences, for life is the great objective of the
study of all these, and the little girl exemplifies life.
=Relation of sciences to life.=--The pictures are practically endless
with which we might introduce the study of agriculture--a boy in the
turnip field, a milkmaid beside the cow, or Millet's celebrated picture
"Feeding the Birds." And, sooner or later, pursuing our journey from
such a starting point, we shall arrive at physiology, chemistry, botany,
physics, meteorology, and geology, and still never be detached from the
subject of life. In the school consciousness agriculture and domestic
science seem far apart, but by right teaching they are made to merge in
the subject of life. Upon that plane we find them to be complementary
and reciprocal. In the same way chemistry, botany, and physiology merge
in agriculture for the reason that all these sciences as well as
agriculture have to do with life. In the traditional school chemistry is
taught as chemistry--as a branch of science, and the learner is
encouraged to seek for knowledge. In the vitalized school the truths of
chemistry are no less clearly revealed, but, in addition, their
relations to life are made manifest, and the learner has a fuller
appreciation of life, because of his study of chemistry.
=Traditional methods.=--In the traditional school domestic science is
taught that the girl may learn how to cook; but in the vitalized school
the girl learns how to cook that she may be able to make life more
agreeable and productive both for herself and for others. In the
traditional school the study of agriculture consists of the testing of
soils and seeds, working out scientific theories on the subject of the
rotation of crops, testing for food values the various products of the
farm, judging stock, studying the best method of propagating and caring
for orchards, and testing for the most economic processes for conserving
and marketing crops. In the vitalized school all this is done, but this
is not the ultimate goal of the study. The end is not reached until all
these ramifications have touched life.
=The child as the objective.=--Reverting once more to the little girl of
the picture, it will be conceded, upon careful consideration, that she
is the center and focus of all the activities of mind and hand
pertaining to agriculture. Every furrow that is plowed is plowed for
her; every tree that is planted is planted for her; every crop that is
harvested is harvested for her; and every trainload of grain is moving
toward her as its destination. But for her, farm machinery would be
silent, orchards would decay, trains would cease to move, and commerce
would be no more. She it is that causes the wheels to turn, the
harvesters to go forth to the fields, the experiment stations to be
equipped and operated, the markets to throb with activity, and the ships
of commerce to ply the ocean. For her the orchard, the granary, the
dairy, and the loom give of their stores, and a million willing hands
till, and toil, and spin.
=The story of bread.=--But the bread and butter, the apple sauce, and
the sugar! They may not be omitted from the picture. The bread
transports us to the fields of waving grain and conjures up in our
imagination visions of harvesters with their implements, wagons groaning
beneath their golden loads, riches of grain pouring forth from machines,
and brings to our nostrils the tang of the harvest time. Into this slice
of bread the sun has poured his wealth of sunshine all the summer long,
and into it the kindly clouds have distilled their treasures. In it we
find the glory of the sunrise, the sparkling dewdrop, the song of the
robin, the gentle mooing of the cows, the murmur of the brook, and the
creaking of the mill wheel. In it we read the poetry of the morning and
of the evening, the prophecy of the noontide heat, and the mighty
proclamations of Nature. And it tells us charming stories of health, of
rosy cheeks, of laughing eyes, of happiness, of love and service.
=Food and life.=--The butter, the apple sauce, and the sugar each has a
story of its own to tell that renders fiction weak by comparison. If our
hearts were but attuned to the charm and romance of the stories they
have to tell, every breakfast-table would be redolent with the fragrance
of thanksgiving. If our hearts were responsive to the eloquence of these
stories, then eating would become a ceremony and upon the farmer who
provides our food would descend our choicest benedictions. If the scales
could but fall from our eyes that we might behold the visions which our
food foretells, we could look down the vista of the years and see the
children grown to manhood and womanhood, happy and busy in their work of
enlarging and beautifying civilization.
=Agriculture the source of life.=--Agriculture is not the sordid thing
that our dull eyes and hearts would make it appear. In it we shall find
the romance of a Victor Hugo, the poetry of a Shelley or a Shakespeare,
the music of a Mozart, the eloquence of a Demosthenes, and the painting
of a Raphael, when we are able to interpret its real relation to life.
When the morning stars sang together they were celebrating the birth of
agriculture, but man became bewildered in the mazes of commercialism and
forgot the music of the stars. It is the high mission of the vitalized
school to lead us back from our wanderings and to restore us to our
rightful estate amid the beauties, the inspiration, the poetry, and the
far-reaching prophecies of agriculture. This it can do only by revealing
to us the possibilities, the glories, and the joy of life and causing us
to know that agriculture is the source of life.
=Synthetic teaching.=--The analytic teaching of agriculture will not
avail; we must have the synthetic also. Too long have we stopped short
with analysis. We have come within sight of the promised land but have
failed to go up and possess it. We have studied the skeleton of
agriculture but have failed to endow it with life. We must keep before
our eyes the picture of the little girl. We must feel that the
quintessence and spirit of agriculture throbs through all the arteries
of life. Here lies the field in which imagination can do its perfect
work. Here is a subject in which the vitalized school may find its
highest and best justification. By no means is it the only study that
fitly exemplifies life, but, in this respect, it is typical, and
therefore a worthy study. On the side of analysis the teacher finds the
blade of grass to be a thing of life; on the side of synthesis she finds
the blade of grass to be a life-giving thing. And the synthesis is no
less in accord with science than the analysis.
=The element of faith.=--Then again agriculture and life meet and merge
on the plane of faith. The element of faith fertilizes life and causes
it to bring forth in abundance. Man must have faith in himself, faith in
the people about him, and faith in his own plans and purposes to make
his life potent and pleasurable. By faith he attaches the truths of
science to his plans and thus to the processes of life; for without the
faith of man these truths of science are but static. Faith gives them
their working qualities. There is faith in the plowing of each furrow,
faith in the sowing of the seed, faith in the planting of each tree, and
faith in the purchase of each machine. The farmer who builds a silo has
faith that the products of the summer will bring joy and health to the
winter. By faith he transmutes the mountains of toil into valleys of
delight. Through the eyes of faith he sees the work of his hands
bringing in golden sheaves of health and gladness to his own and other
homes.
QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1. In what ways is agriculture a typical study?
2. Why was its importance not realized until recently?
3. What educational agency in your state first reflected the need of
scientific instruction in agriculture?
4. The study of agriculture in the public school was at first ridiculed.
Why? What is now the general attitude toward it?
5. To what extent is the study of agriculture important in the city
school? Is there another subject as important for the city school as
agriculture is for the rural school?
6. Mention some school subjects that are closely related to agriculture.
Show how each is related to agriculture.
7. Is Luther Burbank's work to be regarded as botanical or as
agricultural? Why? To which of these sciences do plant variation and
improvement properly belong?
8. In many schools agriculture and domestic science are associated in
the curriculum. What have they in common to justify this?
9. In the chemistry class in a certain school food products are examined
for purity. How will this increase the pupils' knowledge of chemistry?
10. In a certain school six girls appointed for the day cook luncheon
for one hundred persons, six other girls serve it, and six others figure
the costs. Criticize this plan.
11. Show how some particular phase of agricultural instruction may
function in agricultural practice.
12. What benefits accrue to a teacher from the study of a subject in its
ramifications?
13. In what respects is agriculture a noble pursuit? Compare it in this
respect with law. How does agriculture lead to the exercise of faith?
Teaching? Law? Electrical engineering?