ture 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