The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-11-06
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SHEF-
 FEED ANNIVERSARY.


 Those who listened to President Gill mans address last Thursday may have been surprised that he should have de- voted large fraction of his time to a sketch of the progress of science dur ing the past half century. In giving this masterly epitome as an introduce tion to his main subject he showed that he fully appreciated what is probably the salient fact in the history of the school, and what gives it's main signi- ficance to the semi-centennial anniver- sary. This feature of the school is briefly explained in @ paragraph of the catalogue which has been reapeated so often that it has probably ceased to at tract any attention, while very few of the students themselves realize that it is there, or know what it means. The school, according to this statement, lis devoted to instruction and researches in the mathematical, physical and natural sciences with reference to the promo ton and diffusion of science and also to the preparation of young men for such pursuits as require special proficiency in these departments of learning"
 The two words which we have ital- icized, research and diffusion" sum
 up the distinguished features of the school which differentiate it, on the one hand, from other departments of the university and, on the other, from most of the technological schools of the
 country. There Is not another depart ment of Yale which states that its ob-
 ject is either research or the diffusion
 of Knowledge. Where any object is
 stated, that object is usually to train
 young men in certain lines, and this is
 also true of most technological schools.
 The latter try primarily to give young
 men the clements of a profession. Re
 search and diffusion of knowledge,
 thought often pursued, both in these
 schools and in other departments of
 Yale, especially in the graduate school,
 are treated as incidental and second-
 ary.
 The precise statement of these ob-
 jects in the catalogue dates from 1871,
 but their existence dates from the be-
 ginning of the school. The purposes
 of the school were described at length
 in the report of the governing board
 for 1S6S-69, and any one who wishes to
 learn just what is meant by research
 and diffusion of science cannot do bet
 ter than to turn to that report. But its
 actions have been more significant than
 it's statements of policy. From the very
 beginning it has endeavored, first, to
 promote science and then to popular ize it. This 1t has done by holding con-
 ferences of farmers, by establishing a course of popular lectures to mechanics and above all, by stimulating the estab- lishment of agricultural experiment sta tions, and furnishing for many years free quarters to the Connecticut station, the pioneer of them all, For many years the reports which it made to the legislature contained, besides the bald statement of courses of instruction and requirements for examination with which most college catalogues content themselves learned treatise on some department of science. Thus in the re- port for 1S74-75 may be found valua- ble essay by Prof. Johnson on agricul- tural experiment stations and their con tributions to the science of agriculture. This point should be strongly empha- sized because there is great danger that it will be forgotten by the younger gen eration. If the. legislature of the state had fully graSped the idea they would have realized how pointless it was to withdraw from the school the appro- priation intended for it by the congress sional act of 1890 on the ground that it's standard of scholarship was too high to be of practical use to the far mer. If no farmer had ever graduated from the school it's importance would still be vast for every farmer in the state who is sufficiently alert to try to improve his stock or the productiveness | of his farm. This fact was brought home to the writer this summer in con | versation with a farmer in Massacnu- setts. This man works with his own | hands in the field for his living and not 1 for his health, but he spoke quite fami- | liarly of the chemical ingredients which | the different kinds of fodder should | have in order to furnish a proper ration | for his cows. We can be sure that with 1 out the experiment station and without | the researches which such schools as | the scientific school have made he would not only have been ignorant of l the proportions in which different ele- ments enter into the structure of cattle | but he would probably not even have l known fhpir nor1aS --Yala