44 THE PARMER*S EDUCATION. 



has been almost no demand in America for the services of 

 agricultural graduates, and their services are never likely to 

 be so well rewarded as those of other professions. As a conse- 

 quence, few students are found to take the full agricultural 

 course, and of such as have done so the majority luive drifted 

 into other occupations. Nevertheless, as the demand for 

 instruction in the branches of science bearing upon agricul- 

 ture increases, the attendance at Agricultural Colleges will 

 increase. It is increasing now. But most students are poor, 

 struggling painfully to acquire knowledge and training by 

 whose sale they can live. They have little use for education 

 wliich will not sell. General culture is a beautiful thing, but 

 it is a luxury, like a greenhouse or a yacht. A practical 

 education is an education which will sell. 



This, of course, is the purely commercial view of the sub- 

 ject. It is the view, so far as my observation goes, which the 

 majority of university students are compelled to take. In the 

 older and richer communities, from which I have been absent 

 for many years, there are doubtless many who, having gradu- 

 ated from an Agricultural College, return to the manual labor 

 of the farm. Whether they do or not, however, they have 

 acquired true conceptions of the dignity of agricultural life ; 

 of the relationship of agriculture to the otlier arts; of the 

 claims of agriculture upon the state for material aid, and of 

 the nature of the aid whicli should be given; and they are 

 prepared, as well-rounded and useful citizens, to become cen- 

 ters of powerful influence in the communities in which their 

 lot may be cast. 



For there is another view^ of higher education, far more 

 comforting and inspiring than the commercial aspect in which 

 I am presenting it, and with which, altiiough I do not make 

 it prominent in these pages, I can not permit myself to be 

 thought unimpressed. It is well to be a good farmer; but it 

 is far nobler to be a good citizen. While from the standpoint 

 of the poor student the mercantile view may of necessity be 

 almost overpowering, yet from the standpoints of the wise 

 statesman who plans public aid for higher education, the 

 strong teachers who rise to the direction of its effort, or the 



