YALE MEN PLANNING TO ESTABLISH FARM CAMPS

In all probability several farm camps for Yale men will be established in different parts of Conecticut this summer at which Yale men wishing to serve in the country's agricultural army may be able to work in comfortable quarters. The membership at each camp has been limted to 50, in order that each man's time may be spent to the best advantage. Twelve or thirteen weeks will be the regular enrolment period, but men leaving to join one of the second officers' training camps will be excuses early.

The pressing need this year for men to help on the farms of Connecticut has hastened the completion of plans for these agricultural camps. It is expected that with the increased interest which will arise when more is known about the project, approximately 100 men, or enough for two camps will be enrolled.

At a recent meeting of those interested in the camps Professor Kent of Yale, who has played an important part in the formation of the plans, outlined the situation as follows:

"The fact has recently been impressed upon us that the Allies need 600,000,000 bushels of grain. Last year America only reaped 639,000,000. It is difficult for us to realize how strenuous the food situation abroad is until we consider that 300,000,000 must be fed, and that 40,000,000 have been taken out of productive forms of work. Each bushel produced here now means a great deal to the progress abroad and makes the disposal we are to make of the summer seem very vital. We are not planning a summer lark, but the most effective way to spend fifteen weeks.

"We have been working out plans with New England farmers and receiving valuable suggestions from them. It is in this work that the need of labor is most acute--so acute that in mid-summer many factories are planning to release their hands to help the farmers--and it is thought that the most effective service can be rendered here. The New Haven Farm Bureau have assured us that they will find work for all applicants.

"We feel that 13 or 14 of the 16 possible weeks should be spent on farms. Just when the men can get their furloughs is still in doubt. Most of them will want to be free in September, but that is the most important month of the fruit season and many of them will be needed then. At any rate it will be impossible for more than a fixed percentage of the men enrolled to be absent at a given time. Men leaving for the officers' training camps which will open in August will, of course, be excused when the time comes."