WHAT OTHERS SAY. 461 



Our students are unanimous in the opinion that the work is no hindrance 

 to study. The exercise is no more than good, vigorous health, and the 

 best mental effort requires. Our students are not only exceptionally 

 good in the class-room, but they are everywhere praised for their vigor- 

 ous physiques. We believe, our labor system deserves much of the 

 credit. 



That student labor can be made in the highest sense productive and 

 economical no one argues. Not, however, because the students regard 

 it as " a farce ; " but to have a large number of laborers for three hours 

 per day, and many of them persons who know nothing of farm work, is 

 not just the arrangement one would desire, if money alone was the ob- 

 ject. But colleges are not to make money, they are to develop strong, 

 disciplined men. And for agricultural colleges to attract students, and 

 send their graduates on to farms, they must, as experience has fully proved, 

 use manual labor as one important factor of their work. Our critic fur- 

 ther asserts, that during the summer months, when all the studies in nat- 

 ural science can be best prosecuted and farm management is at its height, 

 these teachers drop their work for two months' holiday, because other 

 institutions do so. That is just what we do not do. We think the sum- 

 mer months our harvest time, and we all stick to the plow-handles. Nor 

 do our students complain, but give as good lessons even in dog-days as 

 at any time. I can hardly see how an agricultural college can hope for 

 success, except as it has its I'^'ng vacation in winter, when nature, with 

 which agriculture has to do, is at rest. Surely in our northern states any 

 other plan would seem anomalous and absurd. The winter vacation 

 also gives the poor student opportunity to teach, and thus some of our 

 brightest and most promising students are enabled to finish the course. 

 I quite agree with our critic in his conclusions under this head. Summer 

 vacations at an agricultural college do seem " utterly ridiculous." As well 

 might the farmer take a vacation just at the dawn of the harvest season. 

 But why " ridiculous," unless the farm and garden are to be made ad- 

 juncts in the work of teaching ? 



It is farther stated that farmers' sons avoid the agricultural colleges, 

 "because a young man seeking an education seeks to be more than a 

 hewer of wood and a drawer of water, and because they perceive that 

 this demagogical cry about dignifying labor is really a belittling of 

 mental culture." Surely our critic should investigate before he writes. 

 Farmers' sons do not avoid real agricultural colleges. For years the bur- 

 den of our cry has been "where can we put our students ?" True, not 

 all of these are farmers' sons, but a large majority arc. I think the same 

 is true of Kansas, Mississippi, Iowa and other colleges that are truly ag- 



