American Agriculturist, September 15,1923 
173 
Hens Can Pay Dividends By Sitting 
But Other Critters Have to Hustle—How Education Helps 
U PON being given the opportunity of 
speaking with an audience which is 
all interested in the same work, I 
have chosen for my talk a question 
with which we as agriculturalists should all 
be concerned, and though old, one which I 
believe is still both acute and urgent: “Is an 
agricultural college worth while ?” Perhaps 
to some of you this topic is quite ambiguous, 
and to the rest it is already an answered 
query, but be that as it may, allow me to in¬ 
troduce a part of a conversation which 
moved me to speak along such a line. I was 
applying for work on a farm last summer 
and had been talking with the farmer when 
he exclaimed, “Oh! So you’re one of these 
college fellows, eh? Think you can run a 
farm from studying a book!—Fools!” Not 
wishing to hazard in any way the job which 
I hoped would be mine, I passed 
the incident by without offering ■ 
argument. I was impressed, 
however, at the attitude of my 
employer, and as I afterwards 
found to be the case, the atti¬ 
tude of many another. So in the 
next few minutes may I ask those 
who are already convinced to re¬ 
view with me the proofs of such 
a question, and to those doubtful, 
to consider and weigh thought¬ 
fully the merits of such an in¬ 
stitution, an agricultural college. 
By W. A. FLANAGAN 
that we have to grow a crop of potatoes in a 
day, raise a flock of chickens in a night, or 
breed a herd of cattle in a week; but what I 
mean is this—that the knowledge acquired 
while here in college, coupled with the ex¬ 
perience that we have, or will have gained, 
will enable us to advance stride for stride 
with this outside world of ours. 
There is a common impression that the 
graduates of an agricultural college do not 
follow agricultural work after they have 
completed their course. This same idea has 
even impelled the Massachusetts Legislature 
to investigate their own State college. 
But now through data most recently given 
out by our own farm practice department, 
we learn that in the class from 1906-1910, 
A Day of Specialization 
To-day as never before is a 
“Day of Specialization.” In bus¬ 
iness, in professional life, in al- , 
most any line of work which we 
may think of, there is that cry 
for the expert. And the reason 
is quite obvious, for how often 
have we heard of the youth in 
his first interview with business. 
“Yes,” ^ says the business man, -— • 
“we might have placed you, but 
our concern is one of departments. If you 
had specialized you could step right in.” In 
agriculture the same turn of events has pre¬ 
sented itself. 
Everywhere we look we find farms which 
for the main 'have a single product, and 
the need now as never before, is for the 
man who has specialized in that partic¬ 
ular product. Where can the knowledge, the 
facts, the history of a question be gained in 
a more comprehensive way than in a college 
whose very life is the study of just such a 
subject. In order to meet this demand for 
experts, men must be developed and the 
training of an agricultural college is most 
vital. Push and personality are not the only 
things in life. A goat has plenty of push 
and a mighty strong personality. 
The Demand is for Quick Results 
We are living in a world which is running 
at top-notch speed. Everything is a-whiz 
and a-moving. The slogan of the day is 
faster, faster! We are living in a day when 
automobiles are made to travel at ninety or 
more miles an hour; when a steamship plows 
across the Atlantic in less than six days, and 
when you can flash a message around the 
world in as many seconds. Rush labels are 
being pasted on everything. This is the kind 
ot a world we are going to compete with; 
over every avenue of life hangs this sign: 
Get there, but get there quickly, or some one 
else will be in ahead of you.” A hen is the 
only living critter that I know of to-day that 
can sit still and at the same time pay divi¬ 
dends. 
. However, do not misunderstand me; life 
is not a hundred yard dash, but more likened 
to a. marathon, and I do not mean to insinuate 
“The Eastman Stage’’ 
O NE of the big events each year in the students’ life at the New 
York State College of Agriculture is known as the “Eastman 
Stage.” Through an endowment, A. It. Eastman of Waterville, N. Y., 
provides substantial cash prizes each year to the students in the Col¬ 
lege of Agriculture who show the greatest skill in public speaking, 
knowing that what the schools or colleges can teach prospective 
farmers and farm leaders is not of any more value than to be able to 
express themselves orally, clearly and forcibly on farm affairs. 
Long communication with nature makes the farmer naturally silent, 
which is one reason why he has not had his share for his own prod¬ 
ucts nor proper consideration in public affairs. 
The winners at the Fourteenth annual Eastman Stage contest held 
in Eeburary were: William Adams Flanagan and L. B. Pryor. We 
had the pleasure of hearing these speeches and they were so good that 
we asked for copies to pass on to you. Mr. Flanagan’s speech is 
published on this page; Mr. Pryor’s will be given a little later.—The 
Editors. 
I doubt if it were anything more than an un¬ 
reasoning and inherited practice. In Orleans 
County, New York, there, is a farmer who 
knows when to spray his trees, how to spray 
his trees, and why he sprays his trees. His 
four neighbors know he gets results and in 
like.manner copy him. Learn the source of 
information! He receives bulletins from 
the State agricultural college. He is using 
the finished work of men who have studied, 
tested and experimented with just such a 
branch of farm labor. 
Probably the most important and power- 
.i instrument that the farmer now possesses 
is the farrn bureau, an organization with a 
vast educational and economical aim, an or- 
gamzation which answers tens of thousands 
° u •v^ ers . * n res Pnnse to questions 
which are difficulties to the farmer, an organ- 
ization which acts as a supervisor 
-—i for experiments which are carried 
on on the farm, an organization 
which, upon the outbreak of in¬ 
sects or plant disease, dispatches 
immediately a county agent or 
specialist to the source of the 
trouble to see if it can be of any 
help. Here is an organization 
which is almost exclusively 
manned by college men. The 
State agricultural college has had 
such an influence that in New 
York State alone every county 
agent is a college trained man. 
there were 614 men entered in the regular 
course, and of these 465 were graduated. Of 
these 465 graduates, 81.03 per cent are now 
m all lines of agricultural work. This is a 
truly representative class, for the graduates 
have been alumni long enough to become set¬ 
tled in the line of work which they are likely 
to pursue for life. Here are the authoritative 
figures; over four-fifths of the class in agri¬ 
cultural work. 
It was only this past month that one of 
our agricultural journals chose twelve men 
who in their opinion have most profoundly 
influenced the thought and lives of American 
farmers or American agriculture. These 
men are commonly spoken of as the “All 
American Agricultural Dozen.” Men such as 
Bailey, Henry, McCormick, Babcock, and 
others; and of these twelve, seven are college 
graduates. 
And now no doubt some of you are saying 
that seven out of twelve is indeed a small 
majority, but investigate your present farm 
situation. 
Over six million farmers, and I dare say 
that it is less than 2 per cent who are col¬ 
lege graduates. Yet here are seven out of 
twelve who are college men, and these 
twelve have most profoundly influenced the 
thought and lives of American farmers. And 
then too, when you stop to think that it has 
only been in the past twenty-five years that 
the agricultural college has really performed 
or functioned as it should, and that when the 
students of these past twenty-five years 
will have had an opportunity to make their 
life impression, it will be more than 
enough to vindicate the college entirely. 
The agriculturist heretofore obeyed cer¬ 
tain natural laws, but did he reason why? 
The Place of the Farm in Democracy 
Friends, agriculture is a re¬ 
ality, being the food chest of the 
world, and as former director L. 
H. Bailey has said: “The farmer 
is the fundamental fact in democ¬ 
racy, not merely because he pro¬ 
duces supplies, but because to him 
are we to look for the interpreta- 
tion of the earth in our civic 
relations.” These two facts alone 
made agriculture a business with 
which reaches to the ends 
This college, though still in its 
have 
an influence 
of the world. _^ 
infancy, is no longer an experiment, but a 
permanent institution, and in the words of 
its founders, is here “to improve agricultural 
methods, to develop the agricultural re¬ 
sources and to elevate the standards of liv¬ 
ing m the rural districts.” 
Farming All Right—If It Would Pay 
I N reply to a subscriber who asks in one 
of your issues as to whether farmers 
should stay on the farms, Yes and No If 
we are to see no end of the trend of high and 
still higher prices for what we buy and see 
no hope of better prices for what we sell, 
then a most emphatic, Yes. Anyone who can 
do any kind of even common labor is a fool 
to stay on a farm. On the other hand if we 
could see prices adjust themselves to a more 
equitable level, than a most emphatic, No 
But what hope have we of seeing taxes come 
wheie they should or manufactured products 
come down in price when the corporations 
are making millions and to escape their share 
of taxes are allowed to vote these dividends 
m shape of increased shares of stock The 
trouble is the business man wants three or 
four autos and to get them, he increases the 
profit on the article he sells. We farmers 
are not so fortunate, we take what we are 
offered and pay taxes on all we have at the 
rate the politician puts on our property My 
taxes have increased from $78 in 1918 to 
$207 in 1922 on same farm, and only $400 in¬ 
crease in valuation. Where is it going 1 to 
stop?—C. E. Wood, Cortland County, N. Y. 
