432 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE OS. Doc. 



The greatest work, it seems to me, that the State College is doing 

 today— and they are carrying on many very valuable lines of work — 

 one of the greatest lines of work that the"^ College is doing today is 

 the work of preparing agricultural leaders. My friends, I hope we all 

 realize that this business of agricultural development, if we might 

 so term it, is big enough, is so important to all the people of the State 

 and the Nation at large, that it needs all the men that we can get. 

 We ought to welcome the graduates of all our agricultural colleges; 

 we ought to welcome all agencies. The business of farming is as 

 important today as it ever was in the Instory of this country. The 

 fact is, it is more important. These figures will give you an idea of 

 how important it is. In 1890, 51% of the people of Pennsylvania 

 were rural; today somewhere between 35% and 38% of the total 

 population of Pennsylvania is rural. His Excellency, the Governor, 

 this morning told us this, that only about 11% of our total popula- 

 tion are farmers, and that percentage is slowly decreasing. A study 

 of the population's statistics of the various counties of this State 

 will show you that nearly every county in this State has lost in 

 rural population, not only relatively but actually. It is a fact that 

 the majority of the townships in Dauphin county and Cumberland 

 county have actually lost in population since the year 1890. You 

 may realize what the decrease in the rural population might be 

 relatively, it might be that certain rural district had more people 

 today than they did in 1890 and still they might have a smaller per- 

 centage of the total population than in 1890: but the fact is that 

 there has been an actual decrease in many of the rural townships as 

 well as a relative decrease. 



Here is the thing I want to call your attention to, regardless of 

 the causes of this decrease, and it is a rather complex matter and T 

 cannot go into it in detail, but regardless of the causes, here is the 

 fact that makes this of importance to you and to me and to every 

 person in this Nation of ours; there is a smaller percentage of the 

 total population of this State and of this nation living in the open 

 country and engaged in producing the food supply of the entire 

 country than was the case back in 1890. T say that is of impor- 

 tance to the man in the city, it is of greater importance to him today 

 than it was in 1890 when a larger percentage of the total population 

 was living in the country. We are all familiar with the poem, "Still 

 sits the school-house by the road, a ragged beggar sunning," and that 

 brings back to our minds many pleasant recollections. The reason 

 we like that poem, as you see, is because that poet made it a true pi<"- 

 ture. He knew whereof he wrote "A ragged beggar sunning." 

 I wonder if this rural school (slide) could ever lay claim to 

 making country life more attractive. Why, the very activities within 

 the walls of this school rotated around the life and activities of the 

 city and its business. Is it any wonder with boys and girls attend- 

 ing such a school as this — that in their hearts should arise the hope 

 that some day they might go to the city to live and to work? I am 

 glad to say that the people of the country are beginning to realize that 

 it is more easily possible for them to have ideal school conditions 

 than it is for the people of the city. The time will come when every 

 school in the rural district as well as in the city will become the pride 

 of the community the year around. If the school is to lay any just 



