Report of the Acting Director. 31 



AN overworked FACULTY. 



^^'ork is a necessity and a pleasure, but overwork is not only dangerous 

 to the health of the individual but to the quality of the work turned out. 

 The faculty of this College is greatly overworked, and the condition 

 appeals to me as serious and demanding immediate relief. The increase 

 in students, the increased demand for extension work, and the increasing 

 demand for new investigations and bulletins, has served to enlarge the 

 amount of work demanded far more rapidly than the funds available for 

 maintenance have allowed the staff to be increased. The increased cost 

 of living and the great demand for agricultural investigators and teachers 

 have necessitated a very general advance in salaries. Our salaries are 

 not yet equal to those paid in some other similar institutions and are 

 very greatly below the salaries paid to men of similar training and ability 

 in commercial pursuits. Educational institutions in general do not come 

 into competition with commercial institutions, but the work in the colleges 

 of agriculture is so closely related to the various practical fields of agri- 

 culture that the men in these institutions are continuously in demand for 

 practical positions. Three men now employed as teachers in the College 

 of Agriculture have this year been offered and have refused positions in 

 private business, and have remained in the College of Agriculture in each 

 case at a loss of $1,000 or more a year in salary. Xo educational institu- 

 tion can hope to compete in salaries with commercial institutions, but 

 nevertheless it is necessary to meet these conditions as far as possible. 



The demand for investigators and teachers in other institutions is so 

 great that it is a continuous fight to keep a faculty together, and the 

 nature of the service demands long-continued tenure of office to secure 

 the best results. Xew men from other institutions rec[uire at least two 

 to four years to learn Xew York conditions and reach their full 

 efficiency. With a faculty of over 80 persons, composed largely of com- 

 paratively young men growing in efficiency and reputation, it has been 

 absolutely necessary to utilize a considerable part of the increases in 

 our maintenance appropriation i;i increasing salaries in order to hold 

 the men that it is necessary to retain in order to prevent serious interrup- 

 tions in the work. Five men have left the service this year and in three 

 cases men have been sought by other colleges so strenuously that we have 

 had difficulty in retaining their services. Good men work. Work brings 

 success and success engenders more work. In no other college of agri- 

 culture, I believe we may safely assert, has a better or a more loyal 

 faculty been brought together. To their loyalty, enthusiasm, and good 

 work is due largely the success of the institution and the accumulating 

 demands which now threaten to swamp them. The majority of the faculty 



