'* ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT ABBOTT. 385 



ful experimenting- their business ; they must all pull together. 

 Your college cannot sit there at Orono and tell you how to farm 

 without your assistance ; it cannot tell you exactly what manures 

 to use, or anything- of the sort. There must be a working to- 

 gether ; for you cannot yet tell with agriculture, as you can with 

 mechanics ; it will not come into mathematics ; it is not sure with- 

 out experiment. It is an experimental science, as yet in its in- 

 fancy. So, I say, do not expect too much from the Agricultural 

 College, in that particular line. Help it forward, so that it can 

 make experiments and analyses as fast as you can. Money ex- 

 pended there, in my opinion, (but I belong to an agricultural 

 college) is a good investment ; but do not expect that its value is 

 to be found in the development at once of particular rules, as to 

 what you are to do. 



Your meeting here to-day is exceedingly agreeable to me, and it 

 will be a pleasant memory to takejiome. We are situated some- 

 what differently in Michigan from what you are here. The State 

 Board of Agriculture has no existence there save in the law organ- 

 izing the College. The College was first, and the Board came 

 afterwards, as a Board of Control. 



I was asked by friend Taylor yesterday, if the College was 

 successful, and I answered that I was an officer of that College. 

 If I were in Michigan, I should say it was. . If I went into some 

 corner of Michigan where they hated to pay taxes, I should say it 

 was, because I should add, "You are up to Lansing often, and 

 you can come and see." But I cannot say to you, "Come and 

 see," and I would like to be a little more modest about it. But if 

 we have been successful, we have had, for the past few years, a 

 pretty good chance. The Legislature has, without hesitation, 

 given us what we asked. For five or six jcavs, they have granted 

 us $20,000 a year for current expenses. The Faculty are all hard- 

 working men. They are all interested in their departments, and 

 a perfect unit in the work. They are all men who have come since 

 I went there ; I knew them all before they came ; and they are 

 there, hard at work ; if they were not competent to instruct when 

 they came there, (I mean in the hidden things that were not then 

 much studied, ) they are certainly fast preparing themselves. 



Our Board is small, only six or eight, and almost every member 



is present at the meetings. I have been either a member of the 



Board ex-officio, or been summoned to attend their meetings from 



the first, about twelve years ago, and I have not seen any dissen- 



25 



