390 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



work well, but if you wish to make their work really educational, 

 you must send one with them who knows just how to do that 

 work, who can tell them about it, and answer questions ; conse- 

 quently the system is not a money saving system. Although the 

 boys work well, and do their work well, and do a great many 

 kinds of work that ordinary hired hands could not do, neverthe- 

 less, it is not a money saving system to our institution, the way 

 it has been managed since I have had the control of the college. 

 It was before I took charge of the institution, but it was not so 

 educational. I made the change, and stated to a committee of 

 the legislature why I made it, and that it made the institution 

 more costly than before. They were satisfied, and presented the 

 matter to the legislature, and that body was satisfied, and increased 

 the appropriation which was given to us. 



Sec. GooDALE. What influence, in your opinion, does their 

 labor at the college have- upon their subsequent pursuits in life ? 

 If they got what physical exercise they needed at the gymnasium, 

 would the proportion of those who returned to industrial pursuits 

 be what it is now ? 



Pros. Abbott. That is a question which a man may answer 

 from his opinion, or from a basis of facts. The facts are few, as 

 yet ; they have not been examined ; but I will tell you how it is 

 with us. As I have said, more than sixty per cent, of our gi^ad- 

 uates have gone into the pursuits of agriculture and horticulture. 

 The University of Ann Arbor graduated thirty-seven this last 

 commencement, and out of those thirty-seven only two were in- 

 tending to become farmers. The State Agricultural College of 

 Wisconsin is united with the University of Wisconsin at Madison. 

 It is a fine college, and in a beautiful place, and they have one of 

 the finest men for president that I ever knew — Paul A. Chadbourne, 

 formerly of Williams College, Mass., and of Bowdoin College in 

 this State, and a Maine man. Prof. Chadbourne stated before a 

 committee of the legislature, or before the legislature itself, I am 

 not certain which, that he had carefully inquired of all the stu- 

 dents at the college, some four or five hundred, and he could not 

 find any who had made up their minds to be farmers, or to till the 

 soil, after they left. 



Now, as a matter of opinion, I think this system of labor has 

 everything to do with the subsequent choice of employment. A 

 boy at our college begins with a course of lectui'cs on agriculture, 

 extending over half a year, with geometry and algebra. The next 



