Miacellaeous, 



m 



[July, 1912. 



for those who have given ten to fifteen 

 years of efficient, faithful service to 

 such colleges and stations, or there must 

 be occasional half-year intervals of free- 

 dom and a marked and progressive in- 

 crease in compensation for the older and 

 experienced men. As concerns pensions - 

 one that does not become assured until 

 the end of a thirty-year period of ser- 

 vice, while a great boon to those who 

 finally receive it and a welcome aid to the 

 president in unloading undesired or 

 superannuated professors, nevertheless 

 fails to furnish that assurance of security 

 in case of disability or later financial 

 difficulties which encourages the pro- 

 fessor to satisfactorily equip his library, 

 to travel, to study and to surround 

 himself by the broadening influences 

 which are essential to his greatest in- 

 tellected development and to his greatest 

 usefulness to the students who come 

 under his instruction. In this matter 

 of pensions and conditions surrounding 

 them we have a valuable lesson to learn 

 from Germany. 



It has been argued by some that the 

 early assurance of a pension robs the 

 prospective recipient of initiative and 

 enthusiasm in his chosen profession and 

 encourages a letting up of his intel- 

 lectual activities. To such as advance 

 this argument the writer begs to enter 

 an emphatic denial of the justness of 

 the accusation for from his personal 

 acquaintance with professors in many of 

 the leading German universities and his 

 observation of their spirit of research, 

 he is convinced of the utter incorrect- 

 ness of such a position. Indeed, nowhere 

 in the world could one find greater 

 devotion to duty, greater willingness to 

 make personal sacrifices, or greater zeal 

 in investigation, than among the pro- 

 fessors of these German universities, 

 who can look forward complacently to 

 the future of disabled, and in any event 

 with the comfort and knowledge that 

 their families, after their work is done, 

 will be cared for properly as a reward 

 for a lifetime of faithful public service. 



versities of higher and broader graduate 

 courses in the applied sciences related to 

 agriculture. Let us use our influence as 

 a body to secure from the Carnegie 

 Foundation, for the teacher and in- 

 vestigator in the smaller land-grant 

 colleges, the same fair and just recognit- 

 ion for quality and amount of public 

 service rendered as is accorded to the 

 teacher of mathematics or of the classics 

 in the older classical colleges of the 

 country. If necessary, let the American 

 Society of Agronomy urge upon congress 

 the provision of a pension system for the 

 land-grant college, based upon a reason- 

 able probationary limit of service as a 

 condition for its becoming assured. If 

 to' this these colleges will add the 

 sabbatical year, or will allow a full half- 

 year in every five, and will give adequate 

 and progressive advances in salary with 

 the years of service, we shall soon see 

 plenty of young men fitting themselves 

 well for the work of teaching and 

 research. 



In closing I would not fail to emphasize 

 that young men entering our profession 

 should do so with the missionary spirit 

 and with the desire to serve their fellows 

 uppermost in mind, but the situation to- 

 day is such that many who set out with 

 courage are forced, out of justice to their 

 families and through failure to secure 

 the reasonable comforts and necessities 

 of life), to seek, against their will, such 

 financial returns in other callings as are 

 rarely the reward of the agricultural 

 teacher and investigator. 



H. J. WHEELER. 



Finally, this society will do well to 

 encourage the development in our unii 



