Farm Cadets
In 1917 and 1918, a program was instated in New York State in which school students, both girls and boys, could leave school to work on farms. The work performed by these students, known as the Farm Cadets, not only fulfilled the their physical training requirement mandated by the Board of Regents, but also helped solve the labor shortage problems present on New York’s farms during the war. The Farm Cadets could receive school credit for their participation in the program by filing a report with their school. The New York State Archives holds many of these reports in its records (series A3112).
