580 BOARD OF AGEICULTCliE. 



any other class of men. They do ask for other boys, and I hardly think 

 it right to say that the agricultural colleges ask only for the farmers' 

 sons. We had one boy that came with his father who was in a profes- 

 sion to ask about the school. He asked me what the opportunities were. 

 I told him and they were satisfied. He went to work with a will. I 

 tell you it is surprising because more people do not see the opportunities. 



Prof. Hedrick: In answer to the previous question why the boys 

 do not return to the farms. Dr. Benton took occasion to look up the 

 statistics in this regard, in regard to men in different lines. In the 

 University of Michigan he found a large per cent, of our students re- 

 turned to the farms— a larger per cent, than the percentage of lawyers 

 that were educated in the law course. More boys go back to the farms 

 than doctors remain in practice after they have been educated along this 

 line. 



Mrs. DeVilbiss: I would like to ask a question. In taking a boy 

 who has eight years in the common school, four years in the high 

 school, and four in the agricultural school— in each year for nine or ten 

 months— now doesn't that unfit him for the life on the farm? Isn't that 

 too much mental training for his physical training? Don't you think our 

 children on the fai-m would get more out of six months' training under 

 these conditions than out of eight or ten ? 



Prof. Van Norman: Well my answer to that is, when we have enough 

 of these people whom you are willing to spare from the farm to furnish 

 enough teachers in the schools, the schools will be so taught as to show 

 the boys and girls the large side of the farm, and during their vacation 

 they will take home an interest, and will see the farm side of things, 

 instead of running down and complaining of the work. At that time we 

 will have such teachers in the high schools, but we can not have such 

 conditions until we have enough teachers. We can't have these condi- 

 tions in less than ten years, for it will take ten years to prepare the men. 

 If you think that the boys are getting too much schooling send thom up 

 to the University to take the short course. I want to give you an illus- 

 tration. A young man said to me in Chicago. "Did you see the Berk- 

 shire that won the prize?" Now this boy had picked the hog that won 

 the prize, and he told me that he would never have picked that one except 

 for the training he had got at our college. The things he learned there 

 enabled him to pick out the prize winning sow in that show. You all 

 know what this show is. It is the greatest stock show, greatest fat 

 stock show in the world. 



Mr. Flick: Do the farmers' girls attend school, and if so. how many 

 go back to the farm? 



