clusion temporarily of systematic study, have naturally brought us back to the neglected subject. The refinements in our cultural practices have made a more intimate understanding of varieties necessary, and the increased commercial competition has advanced the same demand.

The fruit grower is the man above all others most interested in systematic pomology. He is the only man, in fact, to be benefited by the prolonged and critical study of the experts. But, valuable as the investigations of the experts are to him, they are of small account, indeed, compared with the variety studies which he makes on his own account. At horticultural meetings, in his neighbors' orchards, and, most of all, in his own orchard, must the fruit grower study every variety which he meets. He must acquaint himself with its smallest characteristic, with its minutest peculiarity, with its slightest preference for soil or drainage or exposure. On the foundation of such knowledge is success built; from the lack of it fail

ure comes.

XXIII

FOR THE TEACHER AND THE STUDENT

IN college circles we hear a great deal about the "pedagogic value" of certain subjects. Even the professor of Greek or Latin himself will admit at times that the dead languages are of no possible use to a living man in any of the ordinary affairs of life; "but still," he will say, "they have a very great pedagogic value."

I am sorry to be forced to admit that in many cases horticulture does really seem to have less "pedagogic value" than Greek or Latin or the Babylonian gibberish of the textbooks. But that is not the fault of the subject; it is the fault of the teacher, of the presentation of the matter, of the system of instruction. The teachers of language, out of the experience of centuries, have developed a pedagogic system which gives their work its pedagogic value. I have no doubt but that as soon as Professor Garner, or some other irrepressible crank, discovers the language of

the ape and the chimpanzee, these teachers will immediately adapt these prehistoric languages to their fine pedagogic systems, and will adopt them into the curricula of the strictly classical colleges.

However, science has a large pedagogic value, too, when it is properly presented, and we are learning slowly how this presentation ought to be made. And although horticulture is only partly a science (and partly empiricism and partly art), still we try usually to teach it from the scientific side. This is because the science of horticulture has greater "pedagogic value" than the empirical art has.

Now, among the various branches of horticultural science none has greater "pedagogic value" than systematic pomology. One reason for this is that the subject is really systematic-orderly. It has a logical arrangement, bringing each part into visible relation with with each other part. But a larger and more immediate reason for its value in a general science course is that it deals directly with the fundamental principles of classification, and these, in turn, are the foundation of all the natural sciences. "Science is classified knowl

edge," according to the universal definition; and an understanding of the methods by which knowledge is classified must naturally open to the student's mind the very beginnings and processes of science.

Speaking broadly, science deals with two kinds of materials-with objects and with phenomena. Through the study of phenomena, science discovers laws or principles. Each so-called natural law is merely a classification of phenomena. When Newton announced the law of gravitation he classified the phenomena of falling bodies-of the attraction of masses. Through the study of objects, science discovers relationships-or, at least, similarities and dissimilarities;—and on the basis of these likenesses and unlikenesses objects are classified.

The classification of objects is obviously simpler form of science than the classification of phenomena. The methods of science are, therefore, more easy to follow. That is why they have greater "pedagogic value."

The classification of objects naturally precedes the classification of phenomena in any science; in fact, the objects with which the scientist has to deal must be under

stood and classified first of all. Thus this branch of every science is the first one to be developed. In every one of our sciencesmost conspicuously, perhaps, in the biologic sciences-we have some sort of a classification of objects. In botany, plants are classified into species, genera, and orders; in zoology, animals are classified in a similar manner; in pomology we arrange fruits into varieties, groups, and species.

This particular kind of classification is called taxonomy. Taxonomy is literally the arrangement of names; that is, we may describe our objects first, then name them, and then classify them by their names. It will be seen by referring to Chapter I that these are precisely the steps followed in systematic pomology. In other words, systematic pomology is taxonomy applied to one particular class of objects.

Taxonomy, as has already been pointed out, is the very beginning of all the natural sciences. Taxonomy is the science of classification the science of science. A college or high-school curriculum devoted largely to the sciences ought, therefore, to offer special instruction in taxonomy.