The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1908-11-27
DO AGRICULTURAL
COLLEGES PAY?
Hugh J. Hughes, North Dakota
Agricultural College. f;

Hugh J. Hughes, North Dakota
Agricultural College.
Every once in while we hear the
assertion made that the agricultural
college Is not a, paying proposition;
that, in short, it has failed in it's main
object of returning trained farmers to
the farm.
It seems to us that the charge is
not sustained. The agricultural col
iege as whole acts as is suggested
by recent writer as an expert adviser
to the farmers Of the state, and quite
often it is their fault that they do not
receive the advice it has to offer. Dur
ing the past year the North Dakota
institute corps spoke at about ninety
places, and to combined audience
of $4,000 people, or to an average au-
dience of 400 people. That, in way,
was not half bad, but it should have
been better. The chances are that
the very men most ready to decry
book farming" were not present at
these meetings, and so failed to get
what practical, experienced farmers,
such as compose the list of institute
speakers, had to give. 1t is safe to
say that, had all the farmers within
reach of these meetings turned out,
the largest halls obtainable could not
have held the crowds. It would have
cost the state no more for the insti-
'tute men to have spoken to audiences
of 500 or 1000 people than it did for
them to speak to the smaller gather
ings, and it is fact that with the
larger audiences the meetings would
have been better in every way, due
partly to the feeling of interest on the
part of the listeners that goes with
a large crowd, and due partly to the
inspiration that large crowds give the
speaker.
The State Of North Dakota sent last
year to it's agricultural college 1000
students, over 700 of whom were reg
istered in what are known as short
courses" in point of fact the work
done is not college work at all, but
such work as should be done in agri-
cultural high schools. Year after year
this influx of "short course" men has
continued, and every year the num-
bers increase. These men, almost to
a man, return to the farm, and carry
back with them something-often
very much-of value. 1t is true that
our graduate students seldom become
farmers, but the reason is to be found,
not in the fact that the agricultural
college educates men away from the
farm, but because the demands of the
day for men in experimental lines of
work, as government employees, or as
teachers in high schools and colleges,
far exceeds the total output of the
agricultural schools of the country.
For it is only the occasional man who
graduates. 1t is only the occasional
man whose face turns away from the
farm. Last year with an enrolment
of 1000 students, we graduated -.
This year, with somewhat larger en-.
rollment in prospect, we will graduate
only IS. Of the remainder nearly all
go back, after a shorter or longer
stay, to agricultural or mechanical
pursuits.
1t was an agricultural college which,
through Prof. Babcock of Wisconsin,
put the dairying industry upon a sci
entific basis through his discovery of
the milk test that bears his name
The world is indebted to the Mime
sofa station for the breeding of wheat,
and TO Iowa and Illinois for vast i'm
provement in corn. To North Da-
kota belongs the great honor of Prof.
Bolley's formaldehyde treatment of
grain for smut that represents an an
nual saving to the people of North
Dakota alone. running up into the mill
ions.
Were the things mentioned the only
benefits that have resulted from the
maintenance of such schools through
out the land, they would have fully
paid their running cost from the time
when the first school was founded to
the present day. and would have
heaped up such dividends in hard cash
as no investments in land or oil has
ever done.
The agricultural colleges of the ma
ton stand for advancement. The
farmer of today has in his hand tho
results of their labors. And we be.
lieve that when looked at fairly, hon.
estly, even the most prejudiced man
will admit that, judged merely by the
cold practical standard of profit and
loss, the agricultural. colleges. particu-
larly the schools of the Northwest
have made good"
The remains Of c. H. Junker. who
died some years ago and was buried
At HankincOn have hoon royoovaS ~