THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 215 



that time there were, iu my district, thirteen suits, and in Michigan seventy- 

 nine suits for infringment. Each purchaser had a guarantee against tlie right- 

 ful patent. They were induced by the oily tongue to buy and thereby bought 

 a lawsuit. 



The proposition is made to hold the consumer harmless, but the constitution 

 seems to be in the way, as that instrument makes a patent right as much prop- 

 erty as a horse. If a man steals your horse and sells it to an innocent pur- 

 chaser yovi won't hesitate to take your horse. You can't, under the United 

 States constitution, take away this right to sue the consumer. 



But there is a way out. The government can say how you can sue, and say 

 that if one sues he can recover no costs if awarded less than $.;0 damages. So 

 if you have a patent gate worth only $5, it will not pay to sue the user, but only 

 the seller. 



THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 



INSTITUTE TALKS BY PRESIDENT EDWIN" WILLITS. 



It was the intention not to have me on the programme, as I desired to 

 come &■> a learner, to find out the wants of the various localities to which we 

 go. In these institutes it is necessary to suit our choice of subjects to the 

 needs of the sections where they are held. Thus if you had no swamps in 

 your county, the paper on the drainage of muck swamps would have been of 

 no interest to you. 



It is our object to find out the problems that are in your way in order 

 that the College may address itself intelligently to their solution. 



I have been the last six weeks in Washington to help secure the passage of 

 a bill for the support of experiment stations. We spoke before the con- 

 gressional committee of sixteen members, and found that the members from 

 New Jersey and from Kansas had very different ideas as to what might be 

 the use of experimentation because of the different needs of their localities. 

 We wish to discover in what ways we can experiment for your benefit, and 

 thus find how we can be of greatest value ; for the success of this College 

 depends upon our knowledge of the needs of the various localities of the 

 State, and this we can get in these institutes. 



I find that all through the United States the people are longing for scien- 

 tific facts, for the aid of science in the problems of agriculture. It is not 

 only that the people are being instructed by colleges, but that they them- 

 selves are discussing these questions, and such discussions will stimulate 

 thought and develop knowledge. It means a change in the character of the 

 people. Farmers are not looking to others so much as to themselves to ele- 

 vate their calling. 



The old adage says," Man made the town but God made the country," and 

 it is the country that replenishes and builds uj) the life of the city. The 

 blood of the country vivifies the arteries of trade and learning. There is a 

 constant movement from the meadow to the city. The country makes the 

 man. Hitherto it has been the city chiefly which has developed the culture 



