One Thousand Ways to Make a Living; or, An Encyclopædia of Plans to Make Money

by Harold Morse Dunphy

Acknowledgment

This monograph was prepared by Dr. Walter J. Quick, Special Agent for the Federal Board for Vocational Education, under the direction of Charles H. Winslow, Chief of the Division of Research. Acknowledgment is due A. C. True, Director, States Relation Service; E. W. Allen, Chief, Office of Experiment Stations; W. H. Beal, Chief, Editorial Division, and Edwy B. Reid, Chief, Division of Publications of the United States Department of Agriculture, for suggestions and data; to the Curtis Publishing Co., for use of illustrations; also, to Dr. John Cummings, of the Research Division, for editorial assistance.

Positions in Agricultural Colleges, Agricultural Experiment Stations, and in Agricultural Extension Service

Many responded to the call to arms from the student bodies and the faculties and staffs of the State agricultural colleges, experiment stations, and extension service. These institutions have lost also to war service, at least temporarily, numerous scientific associates, lecturers, and teachers, research experts and assistants, extension workers, county agents, and others in co-operative agriculture. During the war the withdrawals from all departments and lines of work were of necessity replaced by insufficiently prepared men who in turn, now that the war emergency is passed, will be replaced by trained, efficient men as such become procurable.

It is to be noted further that agriculture in city high schools and other public-school grades is at the present time being taught largely by regular teachers not specially trained in the subject, the number teaching and demonstrating in the agricultural high schools of the country being about 2,500.

Under the Smith-Hughes Act providing for introduction into public schools of agricultural studies and projects, the demand for agricultural teachers, directors, and organizers has greatly increased, and will continue to increase in the future. In the establishment throughout the States of vocational courses, under this vocational education act, great difficulty has been experienced during the war in securing a sufficient number of men qualified to teach agriculture. From year to year, as more Federal and State funds become available, the vocational schools will broaden the scope of their work and more instructors and trained scientific men will be required.

In the higher institutions and services—the agricultural colleges, agricultural experiment stations, and agricultural extension service staffs—new appointments are constantly being made because of promotions, creation of new positions, changes for various reasons, resignations, and deaths. The agricultural colleges and experiment stations employ approximately 3,500 on their faculties and staffs, including associates, assistants, instructors, and helpers. The extension service workers number approximately 6,500, and the number would be greatly increased were trained men and funds available. Hundreds of counties have no agricultural agents. Compensation in these various lines is liberal and proportioned to service rendered, increasing with promotion from lower to higher positions.

Under these conditions numerous teaching positions are now open to men qualified to fill such positions in our agricultural colleges, in our vocational schools, and in our agricultural high schools located in every section of the country. Each year, also, even under normal conditions, as has been noted, many appointments of research experts and assistants are made to the staffs of our agricultural experiment stations, as well as of demonstrators and lecturers in extension work, and of county agricultural agents.

Those returning from overseas in fit condition will, in most cases, wisely resume their abandoned studies or scientific employment. Those disabled should, even during the period of their convalescence, begin to prepare themselves to resume former positions or others more desirable and in line of promotion. Some position is certainly awaiting you if you will but “run the course,” take the training, and prepare for it.

These positions present exceptional opportunities in every State for disabled men who can qualify for them. They cover every phase of agriculture, and will appeal to men of practical experience in farming whose disability may make it inadvisable for them to undertake hard manual labor on the farm, and to men of scientific or technical training that especially fits them for teaching, lecturing, demonstrating, or conducting scientific research.

In general, the positions most suitable for men who have been disabled, where such men have had practical agricultural experience and some agricultural education, and where they are disposed to take the necessary vocational training, will be positions as county agricultural agents, or as demonstrators in the co-operative extension service, or as organizers and directors of the club work in animal husbandry and cropping. These positions may serve most admirably to give training for promotion to some more specific line of work.

Agricultural Specialists

While the agricultural specialist has usually a thorough knowledge of some particular line of work, and is exceptionally efficient in that line, he does in many instances specialize in several different lines. For example, many have specialized successfully in “poultry, fruit, and bees,” and a specialist may easily be well informed in all three of these lines. Nearly all farmers devote themselves to some specialty in which naturally their sons also become efficient. By vocational training such young men who have been disabled in the war, especially those who have had in addition to their practical farm rearing some systematic school training in an agricultural course, may have their development rounded out until they become capable, practical specialists. Their efforts may be expected to be attended by that success which always accompanies the combination of practice and theory. A special vocational training will be necessary to fit such men for positions in agricultural colleges, experiment stations, or extension service.

Promotion Opportunities Ahead

Much of the specialist’s work can be undertaken by men with serious physical disabilities, and the opportunities for promotion along lines of expert and special service are excellent.

The following lists of positions in schools, colleges, and experiment stations, as teachers, lecturers, demonstrators, and research men, indicate the wide range of opportunity open to men of varied training, experience, and capacity. The lists have been made up from official publications showing the positions in agricultural institutions, and an attempt has been made to indicate the number and character of appointments usually made to the staffs of such institutions.

For example, the department of animal husbandry in an established agricultural college located in a State in which grain production and live-stock industries are prominent will frequently include, in addition to the head of the department of animal husbandry, four or five and sometimes as many as eight or ten associate heads of subdivisions, each subdivision employing instructors and assistants, together with a number of herdsmen and helpers for practical work.

The number of departments and subdivisions and the number employed in each department, of course, varies from institution to institution. In the following lists, when the singular form is used, as for example “associate,” it indicates that commonly one associate is employed in the subject indicated in an institution covering the subject adequately. Where the plural form is used it indicates two associates as the usual number employed, and where the name of the position is followed by a numeral or numerals, as “associate (2 to 5),” it indicates that more than two will usually be found on the staff.