ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED | OCTOBER 1934 | THE FARMER
The cutting of $150,000 off expenditure at the Ontario Agricultural College, as reported in the daily press, is at first thought a very popular move. In these days when taxes are all out of line with income, cutting expenses in every direction seems good business, but possibly it still pays to spend some money, just as it pays to spend more for better seed.
We question if lopping off $150,000 will not greatly curtail the efficiency of the College- especially when it means the loss of the services of valuable members of the staff. That amount of money means a good deal to the College, but very little to the farmers of Ontario compared to the services they may lose.
It is very little to spend so that services to the Province, and the Dominion too, that have returned a value of inestimable millions may be continued uncurtailed. But the O.A.C has been like the prophet- not fully appreciated at home. Its reputation is world-wide. Its professors are held in high esteem in the United States, where the value of the agricultural colleges to the community is better appreciated. Most people do not realize that when they write to the Parliament Buildings, their Agricultural Representative, or the farm papers for information that means dollars to them on their farms, that in many instances it is the O.A.C that supplies the answer, directly or indirectly.
As an example of the work that is being done, take the Animal Husbandry Department, where money has not been spent in buildings or exterior show, but where really great work is being carried on by a small staff, working with incomplete equipment, who have been devoting themselves to the improvement of live stock in the Province without thought of self-publicity. In fact this unobtrusiveness, their quiet way of carrying out their projects, is probably responsible for the College not getting more of the credit due it.
No branch of the livestock industry has shown more improvement in the past ten years than swine- with the possible exception of poultry. There are very few men responsible for this progress in Ontario who have not been closely connected with the College- most of them are graduates- and leads in swine projects are still being taken from the Animal Husbandry Department. This Department has been closely identified with the swine-testing station work through one of its professors, who is not only chairman of the feed committee responsible for the ration selection for the whole Dominion, but who also planned the very satisfactory pen at the New Hamburg Station. Further evidence of what is thought of the swine work at Guelph is that year after year buyers return to the annual auction sale to buy breeding stock at good prices.
What is true of the swine projects is true of many other branches of activity at the O. A. C. The question is, can we afford to have men of the calibre of those that have been carrying on this good work lost to us for a saving of 75c. a farm?
The Minister of Agriculture has expressed and we believe him to have an earnest desire to improve agricultural education in Ontario. He has already initiated plans along this line at one of the agricultural schools. But what of the College?
It is often said that it has a tendency to educate boys away from the farm, and while in cases this is true it is essentially a false statement. Offhand, although we have not been closely in touch with the student body for five years, we can name several graduates of the past couple of years who are making a real job of farming.
Cutting can be done at Guelph, but would it not be better to investigate each department carefully and cut and save wherever it can be done without hampering usefulness, rather than to step in and just say, “Save $150,000.” The staff at the O. A. C. probably can bear some pruning, but in using the axe on the dead wood, care must be exercised to see that limbs bearing fruit are not lopped off too. If rumors are true, this is what is happening.