CORRESPONDENCE. 
205 
sional numbers. If we would aecominodate our edueation to 
this state of things our college curriculum would be promptly 
reduced to a farce. 
Again, with inferior requirements we simply invite from 
without the State the graduates of colleges educated on a still 
lower plane than our own. We injure the live-stock industry, 
and incidentallv we undermine our own schools as regfards both 
their efficiency and their profit. In the past our New York 
schools may have in a measure supplied the cities of Greater 
New York, but they have done comparatively little to furnish 
veterinarians for the inland cities and the great country districts. 
By adopting the full legal requirements for matriculation and 
graduation they would open up a new field for their graduates, 
which has hitherto been practically closed to them, and inci¬ 
dentally they would confer a great benefit on New York stock- 
owners. 
It would not be an extravagant estimate to place the veter¬ 
inary practitioners of New York, graduates and non-graduates, 
at looo. On an average the practitioner will not remain in the 
active field for over 25 years. At this rate there would 
come a demand every year for 40 graduates in addition to 
those called for to do the higher class of work in other States. 
This would give ample assurance of support for one good veter¬ 
inary college in the city of New York, even if it could only 
secure one-half of the total number of students. With a four- 
year course it might well mean 100 in attendance at each of 
two colleges. 
The falling off in the number of students entering veteri¬ 
nary schools has not been confined to New York, but had set 
in all over the country before the passage of the New York 
law. It has a deeper reason, therefore, than the recent law 
of New York, and the cure cannot be had by the simple revok¬ 
ing of that statute. It makes it harder, however, for the old 
private schools to bear up under the general depression. The 
temporary reduction of the matriculation requirements to 24 
counts may be needful to allow the New York school, formed 
by the coalescence of the two old ones, to tide over the period 
of trial, and as I stated at our meeting in Albany, I would not 
say a word in opposition, yet I cannot but consider it unfortu¬ 
nate that a full measure of the legal requirements could not be 
maintained. Time will tell, and I would not wish to prophesy 
evil, but it seems to me that even the 24 count requirement will 
drive students out of the State in large numbers, and it will 
