Social problems and the war

Abstract

And as agriculture strikes more deeply at the roots of human life than any mere trade, so agricultural science possesses a human interest and dignity that marks it off sharply from any branch of technology; it is, indeed, one of the pillars of rural civilisation. For the farmer's daily task brings him into continuous contact with the great fundamental processes of Nature, and the function of agricultural science is to teach him to read the book of Nature that lies always open before him, and to see something of the infinite wonder of every common object in the fields around him. The investigator in agricultural science is out to learn what he can of these things, and to pass on his knowledge to the teacher, who in turn has to put it into a systematic form in which the young men and women of the countryside can assimilate it. After knowledge comes control.