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 regime.  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.