No. 4.] WORK OF COLLEGE AND STATION. 195 



taking only a part of the course ; many more are obliired to 

 drop out on account of inferior scholarship ; others leave us 

 for financial reasons, or because of the death or illness of 

 relatives ; and some, it must be admitted, leave us because 

 of dissatisfaction with the course of study. AVhy this dis- 

 satisfiiction exists, and the methods we are now considerino; 

 with a view to removing it, will be considered later. I 

 want, right here, however, to add, concerning these non- 

 graduates, that very many among them are a great credit to 

 the college. Among them are numerous of our most success- 

 ful farmers and gardeners, and men prominent in various 

 walks of life. 



It is significant that the proportion of non-graduates who 

 become farmers is less than that of the graduates who select 

 that calling. In 188G, the latest date up to which complete 

 statistics of non-graduates are available, twenty-eight per 

 cent of these men were farmers ; while at the same time 

 thirty-one per cent of our graduates were farmers. 



It is significant, also, that the proportion of men entering 

 college who complete the course now is considerably larger 

 than in the earlier days. Of the six hundred and forty- 

 three men who had entered and left the institution up to 

 1886, thirty-seven per cent had graduated ; while since that 

 date two hundred and thirty-six men have entered, and one 

 hundred and twenty-four, or fifty-two per cent of that num- 

 ber, have been graduated. This change is doubtless due to 

 various causes, among which one of the most important is 

 the gradual gain of the college in popular favor and respect, 

 due to a fuller knowledge and appreciation of its objects, 

 and the results of its work, as well as to the influence of its 

 alumni, than which no more loyal body of college men can 

 anywhere be found. The more complete endowment of the 

 college by the United States government, its more liberal 

 support by the State, and the consequent establishment of 

 additional professorships and the fuller equipment of every 

 department, are other causes which have contributed in a 

 marked degree to the distinct gain in efiiciency as an educa- 

 tional force which has characterized recent years, enabling 

 the college to offer greater advantages to its students, and 

 thus to retain a larger proportion of them. The labor fund 



