It is further evident that the relationships of the students in the large college are more numerous. The students come from a wider territory; are of an origin more diverse; and are following purposes of a greater variety, even if not of higher significance. California and Maine, Texas. and Minnesota, are brought together. But the constituency of the small college is local. Most Bowdoin boys come from Maine, most Hobart boys from New York, most Wabash boys from Indiana. Relationships of diversity and breadth are of great value. They enlarge the character; they promote savoir faire; they help to constitute the student a citizen of the world; they develop a sense of universal friendliness and friendship.

In the same matter-of-fact method it may be added that the large college has greater prestige. The greater prestige is of small concern to the undergraduate, but it may be of great concern to the graduate. This advantage may often save the graduate's feelings; and it also does frequently put money into his purse. "Why did you come to Harvard College?" asked a distinguished professor, who is no longer a member of the Harvard faculty, of different students. No satisfactory answer was given until a man was reached who replied: "Harvard graduates get better salaries in my city than the graduates of any other college. "Most clear and solid reason," said the professor. The training given. in a small and unknown college may be superior to that given in a great and conspicuous college: it not infrequently is superior; but such training is obliged to prove its superiority. It lacks the mint-mark, which is necessary for securing universal appreciation and acceptance.

Between the advantages offered by the large and by the small college no balance should or can be struck. The presence of numbers or the lack of numbers is only one of many characteristic elements of colleges. The college which is large, or the college which is urban, may be the better or the best college for one student; and the college which is small, as the college which is suburban, may be the better or the best for another student. To ask which is superior is like asking whether one prefers purple or golden sunsets. The answer arises from the personal equation.

But the fact of the personal equation does permit the expression of certain more definite judgments. To the student of ordinary ability the small college offers a heartier sense of sympathy, of fellowship, and of expectation of usefulness; to the student of extraordinary ability the large college offers far richer advantages for higher development and greater increase of his greater power. To the student who is working

his way the small college is less expensive, but furnishes fewer opportunities for earning; the large college demands more money, but is able to make large grants from its loan and other funds, and to furnish better facilities for self-support. To the city-bred man the small college in the country opens a new life, and to the country-bred man the large college in or near the metropolis opens also a new life. To the first the temptation of self-conceit or arrogance is presented; and to the second the temptation of intellectual and moral dissipation. The student of weak will who, however, should never go to college finds more adequate support in the personal ministries of the small college; the student of strong will finds his individuality strengthened, even if made less unique, by the individualities by which he is surrounded.

I should hesitate to make an affirmation on the subject but I do not hesitate to ask, whether the small college is not better fitted to make thinkers, and the large to make scholars; the small better fitted to teach men, and the large better fitted to teach subjects; the small better fitted to train the individual, and the large better fitted to discipline the democracy; and the small better fitted to improve and enrich personal character, and the large to disseminate truth.

With respect to the large college, it is to be said that its organization should indeed be simple, and should not be difficult to make. But the organization of the large college is far less simple than that of the small. The cost of administration is greater. A large force is required to accomplish the desired results. Far greater attention is necessarily given to the organization itself. Among the most elaborate of the organizations of all colleges is that obtaining in the University of Chicago. One peril in such elaborate systems is that the president is obliged, or honestly believes he is obliged, to segregate himself from most relations with the students. This is, or should be, a distinct loss to the student and a loss and sore trial to the president himself.

The primary question whether the large college or the small makes the greater contribution to the betterment of the nation and of humanity, is as easy as it is pleasant to answer. Both types are necessary, and both types are rendering very high service. The presence of a few large colleges - and large colleges mean few colleges as one for each State or group of small States, would result in the manifestation of scholastic forms more impressive, in buildings more magnificent, and in conditions material and intellectual appealing with greater fascination to the heart and mind. This would be a result akin to that which Oxford represents, making an appeal to the sense of the aesthetic and to historical associa

tions. It would be a result, too, akin to that of the University of Vienna, making its appeal to the sense of scholastic investigation and efficiency through the concentration and consolidation of large interests. This is well. The presence of many small colleges — and many colleges mean small colleges allows the coming to these colleges of many youths who would not be able, or who think they would not be able, to go long distances from home in quest of a college training. In fact, many of these boys and girls would no more think of going to a distant college than they would think of going to the North Pole, so remote are their relations from collegiate walls. Therefore, if the entrance into American life of college-bred men and women in large numbers be of value, the small college has still a work to do of the sort which it has done, in the training of boys and girls for the highest service to mankind and for the enlargement and enrichment of their own lives. This is also well.

Consequently it is desirable for both the large college and the small to exist. The large college will become larger; its numbers increasing, its equipment growing, its conditions nobly developing. The number of large colleges themselves it is not desirable, in my opinion, to increase. The number, too, of small colleges should certainly not be increased, but rather diminished. But the small college existing should find its equipment made more adequate, its endowment enlarged, its professors better paid, its atmosphere made far finer, and its relations. richer in the highest scholastic associations.

As I close I venture to express a suspicion, and it is only a suspicion, that, if any one were to count up the graduates of the small colleges of America who have rendered efficient service to the commonwealth and to humanity, and if one were to count up the graduates of the large colleges who have rendered efficient service to mankind and to the state, and if one were to compare these numbers with the whole number of graduates of the colleges of the two classes, it would be found that great and lasting and noble as are the services given by the sons of the large colleges, the services rendered by the sons of the small colleges would be seen to be even greater and more beneficent. But, as I said, this is a mere impression. An examination of the facts might prove that it has no foundation. But no proper examination is possible. The endeavor to make such an examination would be like trying to treat ethical phenomena with the methods of mathematics.

The large college is a creature of the last quarter of the last century. For the larger part of that century the colleges of the greatest number of students, judged by present standards, would be denominated small col

leges. It was seldom that the graduating classes of Harvard or of Yale were of the size of the present graduating classes of certain country colleges of New England. The larger part, therefore, of the great work which American colleges have done for America and the world, the larger number of the noble men whom these colleges have trained for the betterment of the race, are the results of the small college. The small college has now become the large, and the small college also still continues to exist. It remains to be proved whether the large college can do the great work for America and for all men which the small college has certainly done. The proof one awaits with both desire and expectation. CHARLES F. THWING.

AGRICULTURE IN CHINA.

IN a country like China, from whose broad plains 400,000,000 of our fellow-men obtain their sustenance, no subject is of such interest as agriculture. The vast antiquity of this country, too, and the unbroken continuity of its history lend an interest to the consideration of an art which has been handed down as it exists from the earliest dawn of his

tory. Changes there have been, of course. New grains and new vegetables have been added to the scanty list of the old; but methods have remained the same, and the soil is cultivated to-day as in the days which antedate Confucius.

Let us look first at the area of China. The Empire of China consists of China proper, Manchuria, Mongolia, Thibet, Ili or Eastern Turkestan, and the large island of Hainan. Formosa formerly belonged to China, but is now owned by Japan. The name is derived from the word "Sin," meaning silk. The area of China is about 5,000,000 square miles, which is one-third of Asia, and about one-tenth of the land surface of the globe.

As to population, no regular census has been taken for many years, so that it cannot be accurately given; but it is estimated at about 400,000,000, or one-third of the human race. Vast as this population is, the empire is not over-populated. There are immense tracts of vacant lands in Manchuria and Mongolia, and Ili, Thibet, and the vicinage of the Yellow River are very scantily peopled. The cause, however, is not to be found in inadequate tillage of the soil, but in want of transportation.

According to the Chinese accounts, agriculture was not gradually developed from rude beginnings, but has a certain definiteness of origin which it lacks in Western history or tradition. It was the invention of the Emperor Shin Nung, who, succeeding Fuh-hi, the first Emperor of China, ascended the throne 2,737 years B.C. It was he who "first fashioned timber into ploughs and taught the people the art of husbandry." He also discovered the medicinal virtue of plants, and instituted the custom of holding periodical markets for the barter of commodities.