they pay the farmers for the year's supply, giving $1.87 per hundred pounds for corn, $1.10 for pickles up to four inches in length, and 40 cents per hundred pounds if over four inches. From 150 to 200 men are employed during the busy season, and six men from January to the packing season in making cans. The employés are paid at the rate of $1.25 per day for men and $4.00 a week for girls, the help boarding themselves.

Soon after I called at the place of business of the company in Boston, in which city they have a large business with heavy capital and flourishing trade. The past season 300,000 cans of corn were put up. They said they could buy apples all canned in New York less than they could can them, and that they did not make a success of tomatoes, peas, or beans. Four years ago was a very poor year, but it had been fair since, although quite a number of factories had been built the past season and there was danger of overdoing the business. Certain places desiring them to start in their locality had offered $1,000 toward the building as an inducement to locate, but they had as many factories as they needed, and if their runners did not retail as well as wholesale, business would be very dull.

The industry is favorably spoken of by the farmers of North Berwick. One says: "I planted three acres of corn and received $50 to $55 per acre, and one half an acre of cucumbers and received $90 an acre." Another farmer says: "I planted five acres of corn and averaged $50 to $60 per acre, and three acres of cucumbers which averaged $100 an acre, and they pay twenty-five per cent less than they do at other places in the State." Corn unlabeled is sold for $1.30, and labeled for $1.75 per dozen.

A farmer, who was a member of the Grange, planted five aeres of corn and received $50 an acre, and four acres of cucumbers and received $100 an acre. Most of the work is done by machinery. The farmers get from $500 to $700 by the sale of canned goods, and that they would not otherwise get. The co-operative plan was favored by them, and they believed in the Grange as an organizer. The master of the Grange said a canning factory on the co-operative plan would pay, as the farmers would get all the profits, and that apples would pay better to evap

orate than can.

Another member of the Grange, and one of the best farmers, with large barn, stock, machinery, etc., had charge He raised six acres of corn

He

of the work during the busy season. and averaged $50 an acre, and $75 on some of his land. gave as his opinion that it paid to raise sweet corn, selling the corn and putting the fodder in the silo, and also that the price of pickles was too low to raise cucumbers profitably. He thought a suitable building would cost from $1,000 to $1,500, without the machinery.

The canning factory contains four apple cutters, and from ten to fifteen girls are employed. After the cans are filled they are put in hot water and boiled twenty-eight minutes, then pricked, resealed, and put in steam retorts, where they are cooked fifty-five minutes more with thirteen and one half pounds of steam pressure. The cans are made by the factory during the dull season, as they can make cheaper than they can buy. Most of the canning-tin comes packed in boxes from Maryland. There are eighty-two canning factories in Maine, with an amount invested of from $2,000 to $20,000 each. Now these factories are made to run successfully in Maine and pay their owners good dividends, and some complain that the farmer gets too small a share of the profits. Why cannot the farmers unite and run a canning factory on the co-operative system in the same way as they run so successfully the co-operative creamery all over New England? The farmers by owning the plant can get the entire profit of the business. Especially would I recommend the canning of sweet corn, as the corn-fodder can be put into the silo and will make the first quality of ensilage. Thus the farmer will get no small amount of money from this industry, while other occupations, like raising beef, pork, grain, etc., seem to bring so little gain to the average farmer.

The farmers need to study more and unite in some such undertaking, for co-operation with others is one of the foundations of success in any enterprise. The Grange exercises a vast influence in bringing the farmers together for an interchange of views and in enabling them to act in harmony in various ways. I hope these brief notes may reach the eyes of some of our active New England farmers, and that they may awaken an interest in the

matter enough to discuss the subject with their townspeople so that they will send a committee into Maine during the next canning season and learn what they need to start one of their own and come back and push the matter until they demonstrate that a co-operative canning factory can be successfully run in New Hampshire by its farmers.

THE PRESENT STATUS OF AGRICULTURAL

EDUCATION.

BY PROF. C. H. PETTEE.

To fully understand and appreciate the present, it is always necessary and wise to examine the past. Without such examination it would be futile to attempt an explanation of the curious and extraordinary phases of the question of agricultural education, as manifested with singular unanimity in the various States, yet with variations caused by locality.

By act of Congress in 1862 public land was donated to the several States, in proportion to population, for the establishment in each of a college whose "leading object should be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life." Under this act, the New Hampshire Legislature of 1866 received land which sold for $80,000, and established a college at Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College. A bit of history, not generally known, may be interesting here. The money received for the land was loaned to the State at six per cent, at a time when money was worth much more and when the State was anxious to borrow. The State, to her credit be it said, is now returning the favor by paying the college six per cent when money could be obtained at a less rate.

In other States one of two things happened; either, first, the

money was given to an existing institution, an agricultural department being generally added to those already present, or, second, an entirely new college was founded, which in most cases was patterned after existing ones, except, perhaps, that science received more attention than before. It is to be noted that New Hampshire was the only State to locate beside an existing college, thereby obtaining advantages of libraries, apparatus, use of buildings, etc., and yet retain her separate organization complete, not a dollar of her funds being ever diverted to the use of the old college. Massachusetts located in the same town with another institution, but the separation of one mile proved practically as effective as that of several hundred in other cases. In New Hampshire the farmers were very jealous of their rights, and by legislative enactments guarded well the interests of their college. In fact it was only by conceding the entire separation of funds and the retention by the State of a majority vote in the board of trustees that Dartmouth obtained the then coveted prize of the Agricultural College. History has proved the wisdom of these early champions of the people, for in New Hampshire, as in practically all the States, agricultural education was precipitated upon a people totally unprepared for its reception and not even aware of any special need of it. After all these restrictions only a combination of fortunate circumstances, many of which have been popularly condemned, has retained the college with its funds intact to the classes for whom it was founded. Where there was a union with other departments of study (and this was generally the case), whether in cases first or second, those other courses were magnified at the expense of the agriculture. In cases where the fund was very large this did not make so much difference, as there was enough for all, and when the agricultural sentiment was aroused provision was made for the new wants.

In probably no States other than Massachusetts and Michigan has there existed since the early days an institution in which the agricultural course has been made foremost in fact as well as in name, and in these States that course was for years only too primitive as far as pure agriculture was concerned. Maine and New Hampshire, of New England States, might be reckoned