Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 73, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 March 1915 — COLLEGES NOT TURNING YOUNG MEN FROM FARM [ARTICLE]

COLLEGES NOT TURNING YOUNG MEN FROM FARM

Inquiry Among Agricultural Graduates Shows Most of Them Are Tillers That the agricultural colleges are not tending to educate the boys away from the farm is shown by a census recently taken at the Ohio State University. Of 200 men who have gone out from the Ohio Agricultural College in the last six years, 76, or 38 per cent, are actually on the farm. Of the 124 remaining graduates, 89 expect to return to the farm, some day. This leaves but 35 men who do not intend to return to the farm, and in almost every case these men did not intend to do so when they entered the university. The census also shows that there has been sufficient inducement in experiment station, in the United States Department of Agriculture and teaching service, as well as in other fields,for the men not to want to ret\irn to the farm, especially if they do hot have the capital to start fanning. Many of these agricultural graduates receive salaries of SI2OO to 31500 a year from the start. In spite of the relatively fine positions obtained the majority indicate that they would go to the farm rather than take up professional work, ,if they could. However, the verdict of these 200 men shows three substantial reasons why they do not return to the farm. They are:. Lack of capital to begin farming, the indifference of the father toward new and scientific methods, and the lucrative salaries offered to agricultural graduates, due to the fact that during the last five years the demand for men with agricultural training has far exceeded the supply, a state of things that may be looked for to continue.