No. 4.] AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 141) 



the audience who have questions they want to ask about the 

 Agricultural College in any respect, be it ever so small a 

 matte»r, that they will l)e free to present them. 



Mr. Pratt. Mr. President, I would like to ask the pro- 

 fessor, if he has knowledge of this fact, what proportion of 

 the graduates of the college make agricultural pursuits their 

 life work? 



Professor Mills. In answer to that question I will refer 

 Mr. Pratt to the paper that Avas read by Professor Brooks 

 last year. Professor Brooks is here in the room, and I pre- 

 sume he can answer that question more correctly than I can. 



Prof. Wm. p. Brooks. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, 

 in reply to the question of Mr. Pratt, it gives me pleasure 

 to say, because the matter is somewhat fresh in my mind, as 

 I looked it up last year, that something over one-half of the 

 graduates of the colleji'e are either workins; on the farm as 



o o 



farmers or engaged in pursuits which are directly connected 

 with agriculture. Under such pursuits I class the work in 

 experiment stations and teaching in agricultural colleges. 

 Those two classes of work take a far greater proportion of 

 the graduates than almost any other. I think there arc no 

 less than 17 per cent of the graduates of the Massachu- 

 setts Agricultural College who are employed in other agri- 

 cultural colleges and experiment stations. This speaks 

 volumes for the work of the agricultural college. I think 



1 may say this without egotism, because I have not been 

 connected with the institution as a teacher long, and I have 

 not had much to do with preparing these men who are work- 

 ing as professors and teachers in agricultural colleges and as 

 investigators at experiment stations ; but those who have 

 preceded me and many of those who are there now have 

 been connected with this work, and I say that it is immensely 

 to their credit that our graduates have been so largely in de- 

 mand for this class of work. I am unal)le to tell you ex- 

 actly how many of the difierent States of the Union employ 

 graduates of the Massachusetts Agricultural College either 

 in teaching at the agricultural colleges of such States or in 

 their experiment stations, but the number is very large. 

 Although we graduated our first class but little more than 

 twenty years ago (1871 was the first graduating class), we 



