Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1886 [PAGE 144]

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136 The number of students who are pursuing agricultural studies makes a very considerable aggregate, and yet is very small in proportion to the magnitude of the agricultural interests of the country. Very many reasons have been assigned for the small number of agricultural students, as compared with those in other departments of technical science. Without pausing to discuss or deny many others which might be presented, one overshadows all the rest. The young men who reflect upon the idea of making this subject their choice ask of it, as they do of other lines of study—Will it pay ?—and very few discover that it will pay. The question to them is individual and personal. It is not: Will the development of agricultural science and the diffusion of agricultural knowledge benefit the country and help the farming interests? That is admitted, but it is vague and remote. The pertinent question i s : Can I earn better wages on the farm if I have graduated from an agricultural course of study than if I had not? When a similar question is asked by one who proposes to study engineering, chemistry, architecture, mechanism, or to take a course of normal instruction, the answer is prornptly in the affirmative. The querist knows numerous instances within his own circle of acquaintance of persons whose monthly or yearly earnings are larger by very considerable and definite amounts than they would have been if those persons had not invested a certain amount of capital in securing an education specially adapting them for such work. If the graduate of an agricultural college is the fortunate possessor of a farm, or if his father has one on which he may exercise his special skill, there is little doubt that a student of fair ability will show good results for his study and discipline. If he is without the means to get the management of a farm into his own hands— and the opportunities for farm superintendence on salary or month's wages are very scarce in so new a country as this—he does not find occupation at wages that will pay for his investment as a student. However earnestly we may regret that the facts are as they are, we can not deny them, and the change in them will come but slowly. The Veterinary Department of the School of Agriculture has received a valuable accession in Dr. Donald Mcintosh, late of Kingston, Ontario. Dr. Mcintosh has proved himself an accomplished practitioner and a careful instructor. His clinics are very fully attended. Farmers bring diseased animals of every domestic variety and have them treated and prescribed for, free of charge, in the presence of the class. The benefits of the School are thus disseminated as far as neighborhood lines can reach, as well as to those who are making veterinary science a study. Indeed, the subjects which pertain to animal husbandry in all its forms have long received careful attention here. The varied breeds of animals, the laws of breeding and crossing, their care in health arfd in sickness, the practical details of feeding, fattening, and marketing, are all made the objects of careful study and instruction, illustrated by specimens of thoroughbred animals of many breeds, in every principal department, horses, cattle, sheep, swine, and poultry. Dairying and butter-making are not forgotten.