396 TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART V 



Educational Privileges for Farmers 



Can anyone truthfully say that it is less dignified or less worthy to be 

 an interpreter of laws which God made than it is to interpret the laws 

 that man made? I think it is as dignified to understand the laws that 

 govern deadly conflicts between bacteria in the soil as to understand, 

 the laws relating to upkeep of fences or trespass on the top of the soil. 

 When the difficulties and the intricacies of agriculture are considered in 

 connection with other industries, no one can truthfully say that the 

 people engaged in agriculture are any less in need of education than 

 are those in other kinds of work. It is fortunate that in agriculture 

 one is able to get much knowledge through his own observation and 

 efforts. 



Perhaps someone has wondered why I have talked so long without 

 mentioning Iowa State College. It is because I have had something larger 

 in mind. The college is only an instrument to help promote the best 

 things that I have been discussing. It does so through research and 

 education. Carefully trained experts are hunting for new and better 

 ways of doing things. Much of their time is given to devising methods 

 to combat new and unexpected difficulties which appear too often at the 

 farmer's back door or in his field. 



The educational work is conducted through a great student body, 

 including a considerable group of young men and women from every 

 county of the state. The educational work is conducted, also, through 

 the extension service which reaches all parts of the state and many 

 thousands of people. 



Extension Work Reaches Far Fields 



About 4,000 young folks are in the college at Ames and more than half 

 of them are studying agriculture to become farmers or home economics 

 to become teachers and home makers; the others are taking engineer- 

 ing, industrial science and veterinary medicine. It costs the state about 

 one dollar to every three and one-half dollars that is costs the students 

 or their parents, for this education. 



Does it not interest you to know that since the war, 1250 men who 

 have been disabled in service have been trained by Iowa State College. 

 Without this training some of these men would become public charges. 

 Some of them now are better trained to make a living than they were 

 before the war. Accurate records show that their training in the college, 

 which averaged fifteen months duration, increased their earning capacity 

 $364.00 per year which means over $450,000.00 increase of annual income 

 for the entire number. 



The average farmer of Iowa this year is paying the equivalent of less 

 than three cents per acre on his land as his entire share of maintaining 

 Iowa State College, including all branches of work and some building 

 operations. All farmers together thus pay about one million dollars. 



The extension service is in close contact with the farm bureaus 

 throughout the state. What has been accomplished through the co-op-' 

 eration of these two agencies is known to you. The reduction of costs 

 of production, women's work, and boys' and girls' clubs with over 17,000 

 enrolled members, need not be discussed here. That this work is appre- 



