EDITORIAL. 603 



Equally favorable results are furnished by other colleges the coun- 

 try over. The examples cited indicate that whatever may have been 

 the drift of the agricultural college graduates away from the farm 

 and its scientific problems in earlier years, there is no evidence of a 

 similar movement among the recent graduates of the agricultural 

 courses. 



Wliat is true of agricultural colleges in America seems also to be 

 true of similar institutions in Great Britain. The report of the 

 Board of Agriculture and Fisheries on the Distribution of Grants 

 for Agricultural Education and Research in 1910-11, gives some 

 information concerning the occupation of agricultural students in the 

 institutions in England and Wales aided by the board. This report 

 shows that of a total of 1,769 pupils for whom full particulars were 

 available, 1,4:47 became fanners, 184 land owners, and 138 entered 

 other occupations. In other words, 1,631 students, or over ninety- 

 two per cent of those leaving the agricultural courses, returned to 

 occupations connected w^ith the land, and it is stated that among the 

 138 referred to as entering other occupations there are several who 

 have been lost sight of and who may have taken up agi'icultural 

 pursuits. 



Many reasons have been advanced to account for the larger per- 

 centage of agricultural college graduates who now take up agricul- 

 tural occupations, but all of these reasons are quite closely related to 

 the fact that agriculture is better paid than a few years ago, and 

 respect for it as an occupation commanding a high order of ability 

 has materially increased. It oilers a large opportunity, which is 

 more broadly appreciated. Among the factors which have con- 

 tributed to the better status of agriculture are a better understanding 

 of the scientific problems of the farm, better living conditions on the 

 farm, better means of communication in the country, better labor 

 saving machinery, and better salaries for those engaged in promoting 

 agricultural interests as teachers, investigators, extension workers, 

 editors, or in other ways. 



That the agricultural colleges and experiment stations and the 

 Department of Agriculture have had a large share in bringing about 

 improved conditions goes without saying. The investigations of 

 these institutions have put farming on a better paying and more 

 permanent basis, and thanks to their teachings, it is no longer cus- 

 tomary for the intelligent farmer to yield ground to the grasshopper, 

 the army worm, the brown rot, and other pests of his fields and flocks. 

 Instead, he fights these invaders wdth the weapons that science has 

 put into his hands, and for his pains secures better crops and higher 

 prices than his careless or ignorant neighbors. 



It does not take young men long to see the advantages to be secured 

 by up-to-date practices in growing, harvesting, and marketing their 



