South Dakota State College - Jack Rabbit Yearbook (Brookings, SD)

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Department y'History and Political Science ALBERT S. HARDING, A, M. Professor of History and Political Scien CC 33

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iv I A - 5 r ff, 1- '.l'a 'fi' DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE. HISTORY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE. Until the middle of the nineteenth century even the best American colleges usually provided for instruction in history by adding such work to the duties of a professor teach- ing some other subject, such as Latin or philosophy. American history and the political and social sciences had no place in the college curriculum. In fact, it is only within the last fifteen or twenty years that American history has been regarded by educators either as a part of a liberal education or as a subject worthy of scientific treatment. The idea of old pedagogy was that la liberal education could be obtained only from a study of the classics, and that strength of mind and purpose could only come from a detailed study of mathematics. The tendency in modern pedagogy is toward recognizing a similar or equal value for purposes of training and instruction in nearly all branches of human knowledge. With the advent of the modern sciences came the scientific spirit and the laboratory method. Gradually one branch of the instruction after another came under the scientific in- Huence, much to the advantage of its treatment in the class l'00l'l1. History and the politi- cal and social sciences are the latest subjects to receive scientific treatment, and are now demanding a place in the educational curriculum commensurate with their importance. The scientific study of history and the political sciences has now obtained a substantial foothold in the universities and colleges and is beginning to make some impression upon second- ary education. At the present time, highly specialized work in these fields is offered in the leading American colleges and universities- Separate schools of history and political science are organized in the larger institutions. The courses in history and political science in our own college are of necessity lim- ited in number and the work is quite largely elementary, yet the endeavor is made to so direct the work that the best disciplinary and culture results may be obtained, and that students may be better fitted for the duties and responsibilities of citizenship. History is a subject unequalled for its opportunities of comparison, and therefore for training the judgment. The collection and classification of historical material and the criticism and interpretation of the same which follows make demands upon the mind fully as exacting as are made by chemistry or botany or any other of the natural sciences- From the standpoint of the social welfare, history and the political sciences prepare the student to deal with the present problems of society and politics. There are troublesome' problems involved in the conditions of life to-day. We must face them. In our great experiment in democracy we are proceeding upon the theory that the average man is not only patriotic and honest. but that he is a political expert. If our democratic institutions are to endure we must have a desire on the part of intelligent people to bear the responsibilities of organ- ized society. There is a call for greater intelligence on the part of the citizens than was ever required before. To fit for the responsibilties of the present, to combat the political pessimism of the day, nothing is more helpful than an ancquaintance with history and the allied political sciences. It corrects halfway views of human affairs and leads to rational conservatism, toleration and broad-mindedness. It arouses the interests of men in the duties and opportunities of citizenship. In the required courses in history as given at this college certain definite results are aimed at. It is expected that the student should have CID a clear outline of the period coveredg C2D a knowledge of the principal original sources, and some training in the use of original records, because it is a primary necessity in history to know the truth, and this implies that every student should see for himself how history is writteng C35 train- ing in handling secondary work with discrimination and ability to make an abstract ofthe substances of what he has read in good Englishg C4J a knowledge of how to make an out- lineg Q51 knowledge of how to use bibliographical aids and ability to take notes intelli- gently and last Q61 how to study two successive historical maps and explain the changes that have taken place. The work is so planned that the student may, if he desires, pursue a fairly continuous line of historical study in ancient and modern European, English and American history and in .American municipal, state and national government and inter- national law. 32

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DEPARTMENT OF I-IORTICULTURE AND FORESTRY. Ninety acres of land are under the care of this department, which includes about ten acres of campus and ornamental grounds. In the class-room, greenhouse and grafting labora- tory the leading methods and principles of prairie horticulture and forestlry are taken up with special reference to western conditions of soil and climate- On the grounds are found twenty acres of timber plantations, several acres of apple and plum orchard and an immense number of fruit seedlings. In the work with fruit seedlings the number is now second in extent only to that of Luther Burbank of California. Several hundred thousand seed- lings of various orchard and small fruits have been raised at this station since Professor N. E. Hansen took charge of the department in September, 1895. Many thousands of fruit seedlings are discarded and destroyed by fire 'each year. Only the best few are saved. The work of fruit breeding corresponds to that of invention in the domain of mechanical industries, and in the words of the head of the department, inferior seedlings are simply the shavings in the workshop of an inventor. The peculiar climatic conditions ofthe prairie Northwest indicate the great need of hardier orchard and small fruits than we have at present. With a view to meeting this demand the various wild fruits have been gathered from many sections of the Dakotas, Manitoba, Assiniboia, and other regions of the prairie Northwest, and thousands of seedlings have been raised under .the most favorable environment with a view to rapid improvement in the size and quality of 'the fruit. In the course of a ten months' trip as the first agricul- tural explorer sent out by the United States Department of Agriculture in 1898, Profes- sor Hansen secured much additional material from the arid and semi-arid regions of Eastern Russia, Transcaucasia, Bokhara, Russian Turkestan, Western China and Siberia. Additions are made to the list each year by several importations, in the endeavor to get anything new brought to light in Europe and Asia. The first fruit-breeding greenhouse ever con- structed was built at the South Dakota Agricultural College in 1901 under the direction of Professor Hansen, and here the ends of the earth, horticulturally speaking, have been brought together, and the crossing and hybridizing done under glass with a view to orig- inating new fruits combining hardiness of plant with choice quality of fruit. Already several choice varieties have beeen originated and ,are now being propagated for trial elsewhere. In fruit seedlings the quarter million mark was passed two years ago and there has been no time ffor a census since that time. As an illustration may be mentioned the experiments with the Sioux Indian sand-cherry common in the range country west of Pierre. In a plantation of over 25,000 seedlings of the third generation from the wild, seed- lings were found last year bearing fruit an inch in diameter and of good quality. Sev- eral thousand ,seedlings of the fourth generation are coming into bearing and over 70,000 sand-cherry plants are on hand at the present time. Trips of exploration are taken at intervals to various parts of the state in search of new material, especially in the range country from Pierre to the Black Hills- In the work of inventing new 'varieties of hardy strawberries, from 8,000 plants produced, by crossing the wild with the tame, some 225 plants were selected and given further field trial. The strawberry seedlings now occupy over three acres. None of these plants are ever mulehed, so they have endured 40 degrees below zero with the ground bare. In all the work with 'fruits any plant that does not stand this test is discarded as unworthy of further trial. Over six thousand plum seedlings have been fruited and some varieties obtained of extra large size and choice quality. Many strange hybrid fruits are coming on, some of them combinations never made before. In raspberries, the wild species from various parts of the Northwest, have been crossed with tame varieties, also thousands of pure native seedlings have been raised. 'A few seedlings have appeared as a result of the work, which are perfectly hardy without winter protection, and bear large fruit of good quality. In ornamental plants the main work has been in importing from many countries a 34 0