Vol. LXX. No. 4101. 
NEW YORK, JUNE 3, 1911. 
WEEKLY. $1.00 PER YEAR 
THE STUDENT LABOR PROBLEM. 
A Statement From Dr. L. H. Bailey. 
Part II. 
It is strange that anyone should expect all students 
from a college of agriculture to be expert practical 
farmers when we do not expect similar experience from 
students of other institutions. We do not expect a 
graduate of a college of law to be competent to handle 
a case until he has read law and has been regularly 
admitted to the bar; or a graduate of a college of 
medicine to be a competent physician until he has had 
his hospital training; or a graduate of a college of 
architecture to be able to plan and construct an im¬ 
portant building until after he has had his experience 
in an architect’s office; or a student from a course in 
landscape gardening to be able to plan and develop a 
large estate until he has had actual experience in the 
practicing landscape architect’s office; or a student of 
an engineering college to be able to engage in large 
engineering enterprises 
until after he has had 
practice with a construc¬ 
tion firm. Most of the 
students of the colleges 
of agriculture have had 
practical farm training 
before they have come 
to college, and many of 
these students may make 
at once the very best 
farm men; but the stu¬ 
dent who has not had 
such training must ex¬ 
pect to secure it either 
after he leaves the col¬ 
lege or else by dropping 
out of college one or 
two years in his course. 
The place to secure real 
farm training is on a 
real farm; and this 
means a farmer’s farm. 
In these remarks I am 
speaking of institutions 
of college and university 
grade. They will apply 
in the main even to 
training - schools and 
trade - schools, although 
to a less extent than I 
have applied them here. 
Some of these schools 
are designed to give much work and training in 
manual and handicraft and apprenticeship skill, and 
they are not confronted with the problem of provid¬ 
ing work of college standing, that shall be comparable 
in educational value with other colleges. The training- 
schools and trade-schools may devote more time to 
hand work; but even so, it will be very difficult for 
them to train any number of pupils in actual farming. 
Persons cannot be trained in farm work in the ways 
in which they are trained in shop work. 
Before closing this part of my discussion, I should 
call attention again to the fact that it is not the 
function of the colleges of agriculture to make farmers. 
It is their function to educate students by means of 
farming and country-life subjects. What occupation 
the students follow in later life, is not primarily the 
responsibility of the institution. It is to be expected, 
of course, that the larger part of the students from 
these institutions will make farmers or will be very 
closely associated with agricultural pursuits; but no 
one has a right to expect that just because a student 
has gone from a college oi agriculture that, therefore, 
he should be a farmer, or that he should know all 
about agricultural subjects. Wholly aside from the 
obligation of the college itself, also, it is essential 
that agriculturally educated young men and women 
engage in many pursuits in life, for we need the in¬ 
fluence of such men and women in all walks if we 
are to make a fundamental re-direction of rural civili¬ 
zation. 
It is really remarkable that the number of young 
men who have gone from the colleges of agriculture to 
the farms, should be so large as it is, considering the 
great opportunities in the commercial world and the 
call for men in the teaching and experimenting institu¬ 
tions. It is probable that the proportion of students 
from the agricultural colleges who now engage in agri¬ 
cultural pursuits is greater than that of students of 
colleges of law or other professional colleges who fol¬ 
low the profession or occupation for which the college 
stands. The statistics of one of our leading colleges 
of agriculture show that above 65 per cent, of its 
students have gone directly into agricultural, horticul¬ 
tural, and dairy work, and that about 18 per cent have 
become teachers and officers in departments of agricul¬ 
ture, agricultural colleges, and experiment stations, 
making a total of about 83 per cent, that are at present 
engaged in agricultural work of one kind or another. 
This is in spite of the fact that a good many of the 
students are still young and are obliged to engage in 
other occupations until they can secure means to pur¬ 
chase a farm, and that some of them are women who 
are now home-keepers and teachers. The tendency 
of students to go to the farm is now greatly increasing, 
and the figures of former years may not apply in the 
future. The whole situation is rapidly changing. 
Probably no agencies are now so effectively stimulat¬ 
ing a love for farm life as are the colleges of agri¬ 
culture. 
THE OBLIGATION OF THE FARMER.—The 
farmer, as well as the colleges, carries a natural re¬ 
sponsibility toward the development of a better agricul¬ 
tural civilization. Merely to be a good farmer is not 
a sufficient object in life: Even though we develop 
ideal schools and colleges in which agricultural train¬ 
ing and education have an important part, the farmer 
himself will still carry the obligation to aid in the pro¬ 
cess of education. 
If the college of agriculture supplies the student 
with the principles and theory, with accurate 
knowledge, with the outlook and the will, with the 
trained intelligence, and with manual skill in a good 
number of special operations, it is equally the duty of 
the farmers of the country to provide the means of 
supplying the necessary actual farm practice that is 
required to make the rising generation to be effective 
countrymen. There are some things that a student 
should know before he ever goes to college. If he 
is a farm boy he ought to know how to harness a 
horse, to plow, to plant, to harvest, and to perform 
all the customary operations of the farm. The farmer 
cannot delegate the responsibility of training his sons 
in these arts. After 
such a young man has 
completed his college 
course, he ought to be 
able to go directly back 
to the farm and execute 
a great deal of what he 
has learned. If he is 
obliged to seek work, he 
should 5e able to find it 
on any good farm that 
is in need of labor. If 
the student is not farm- 
reared, he must then 
secure his actual farm 
practice by working on 
a farm for a year more 
or less. It would be 
much better for him if 
he were to have this 
practical farm experience 
before he ever goes to 
college. It is necessary 
that he not only have 
knowledge and skill in 
the farm operations, but 
he should also be fully 
informed of the rural 
mind. If he does not 
secure the farm training 
before he goes to col¬ 
lege, then he must get it 
after he graduates and 
before he takes up a farm of his own or before he 
expects to become a manager of a farm. In some 
cases, students drop out for a year during the course 
and secure their experience; this is often a better 
practice than to leave the farm training until after 
the end of the course. Some students get their farm 
practice by spending their Summer vacations in this 
work, but this ordinarily does not produce the best 
results, although there are some city boys so apt and 
industrious and adaptable as to enable them to get 
the practical side by means of vacation work. 
It is to be expected that some students will be more 
industrious than others. Some will understand very 
little about country-life conditions and others will b? 
well informed. Some will be adaptable and some will 
not. It is, therefore, to be expected that the students 
who are seeking work on farms will be of all kinds. 
Some of them will earn good wages at once, and some 
of them will earn nothing. Yet I find that some 
farmers expect that a graduate of a college of agricul¬ 
ture, one who has not been accustomed to hard physical 
labor for some time, will be able to “hold his own” on 
AN EARLY START IN STUDYING PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. Fig. 223. 
