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Show Take Your Cue From CSU Farm Boys Should Go to College A recent survey made by Russell B. Dickerson, of the Pennsylvania State College of Agriculture, proved that it is worth $40 per day for a boy to attend high school. Upon graduation he may be expected to earn during his lifetime, life-time, $33,000 more than the grammar school graduate. The lifetime earnings of the College graduate were found to be $72,000 more than those of the high school graduate. This may be interpreted as the cash value of a college education. If a farm boy will invest $4,000 in a college education, he may reasonably expect a cash return re-turn of 18 times his investment. It isn't so much a question of whether a farm boy should go to college as it is whether he wants to go to college. The decision should be made by the boy- himself., Quite naturally he should seek the counsel of his teachers, his parents, members of college faculties, and others. The time he mas spend in college, its cost, his abilities, interests, and desires will and should affect his whole, life pattern. Agriculture is basic. Quite naturally nat-urally we think that if a farm boy goes to college he will study Agriculture. Agriculture is the leading Industry of the world. A prosperous and efficient agriculture agricul-ture is prerequisite to the success suc-cess of all other industries and professions. When we realize that all that we eat except salt and all that we wear except jewelery comes from Agriculture, we can readily see that the agricultural industry is basic. Plastics has opened new responsibilities for agriculture. Trained People !.eeded Agriculture needs trained people. peo-ple. Over five million individual farms are now operated in the United States. About one-fourth of a. million scientists are now serving in Agriculture and its related re-lated fields. More trained people peo-ple will now be needed if we are to increase and improve our crops and animal production; conserve and improve our soil; and control or eliminate plant and animal pests. We must improve im-prove the efficiency of our processing, pro-cessing, storage, and distributing distribut-ing services; we must discover 'and apply new, scientific and engineering en-gineering principles to agricultural agricul-tural production and distribution, and encourage the application of new social and humanistic principles prin-ciples to rural living. In America todav. less than l3 per-cent of the population is j operating the farms to produce food for the other 87 per cent. It is therefore impossible to conceive con-ceive of a very large percentage of our college graduates returning return-ing to the farm, but we must recognize that we are geared to a world economy and this requires re-quires trained agricultural leadership. Have-nots can be helped. In many, many underprivileged countries there are people who are unclothed, unsheltered, illiterate, illit-erate, and dying from undernourishment under-nourishment and disease. They can be helped and want to be helped, and their land is capable of being brought into production of food and fiber. Training Is essential. Prosperity Prosper-ity Is dependent upon everyone being trained to work efficiently. This may mean college for some and apprenticeship or on-the-job training for others. Farming is one of the many career opportunities oppor-tunities in agriculture. The time when "anybody" can farm has passed. Farming has become a highly scientific, complex, and difficult business. Training in agriculture is as essential as for any other business or career. Food for thought. Statisticians predict that the population of the United States will be 200 million by 1975 and that if the present pres-ent trend in our eating habits continues, we will require around 40 more food by then. This increased supply will have to come from about the same number num-ber of acres now devoted to food production. This will require well trained experts and technicians in the field of Agriculture. |