PLAN No. 1067. IS THERE A DEMAND FOR LABOR?
The demand for efficient farm labor is second to no other labor requirement in the world, even in ordinary times. You may be assured that the opportunity for permanent employment is excellent. State agricultural colleges can not supply the demand for farm managers, herdsmen, dairymen, orchardmen, and men who have studied the production of small fruits and vegetables and have had practical experience in these lines. The agricultural colleges give special courses in forestry, floriculture, poultry raising, beekeeping, and other lines, and those who have taken even short winter courses easily find employment at advanced wages.
Others Have Made Good
Many disabled men are following agricultural pursuits. Before the war we had examples in hundreds of men with only one arm or one leg who were farming successfully, and reports from Italy, France, England, and Canada inform us that hundreds of disabled boys, retained and readjusted, are now successfully adapting themselves to agricultural work.
Getting back home to work again should be, and doubtless is, your greatest ambition, hence the importance of reaching your decision at the earliest possible moment and applying for the training which will be provided for you.
On arriving at your home you will find the attitude of your old friends, your own family, and your former employers all that you could possibly expect in their desire to assist you. The disposition of your fellow workmen will be to give you every encouragement and to lend a helping hand whenever and as long as you need it. They will take a justifiable pride in you and your determination to be a man among your former fellow men in civil life, and to help produce for the world the food which will prevent in some measure hunger and starvation in the war-afflicted countries, and will provide adequately for our own needs.
Opportunity for Advancement
In agriculture you will win out in proportion as you develop efficiency. You will be your own master, and will achieve your own advancement. You may reasonably expect to acquire independence for yourself and for your family. The good farmer normally improves his condition from year to year. Only the poor farmer fails, and the way to avoid failure is to take the training that will make you a good farmer.
More Training if You Need It
If, perchance, you have taken insufficient training and desire more instruction after you first try out on the farm, you will be permitted to return for that. If you reach the conclusion that you desire training in another of the many agricultural branches, or in any other line, the Federal Board for Vocational Education has the courses in readiness and will gladly give you further opportunity of re-educating yourself.
What if You Do Not Take Training?
The matter of training is up to you, and so also will be your occupation and success in life. You may succeed without training, but you are more likely to do so if you have been retrained and readjusted to the new conditions which will confront you in earning a livelihood. You have been too much a man “over there,” too brave and too ambitious to do your part, to do otherwise now than exhibit by a manly endeavor your ability to come back to the noble position of an efficient, self-supporting, and respected citizen of the United States.