104 MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



Prof. R. r. Kedzie came to the college a little later, in 18G3, when 

 Dv. Miles had been for two jears a professor, and found him then the 

 authority "for jjrofessors and students alike on beasts, birds, and 

 reptiles, on the stones of the tield, and insects of the air,'' thorough, 

 scholarly, and enthusiastic, and therefore very popular with his classes. 



The projection of agricultural colleges under the agricultural college 

 land grant act of 18G2 stimulated a demand for teachers of scientific 

 agriculture, and it was found that they were rare. Of old school 

 students of science there was no lack — able men. as President Clute 

 well says, who were familiar with their little laboratories and with the 

 old theories and methods, but who did not possess the new vision of 

 evolution and the conservation of energy, men of the study rather than 

 the held, and least of all men of the orchard and stock farm; ajid they 

 knew nothing of the practical application of chemistry to fertilization 

 and the raising of crops and the composition of feed stuffs, of physiology 

 to stock-breeding, and of geology and physics to the study of the soils. 



With a thorough knowledge of science and familiarity with practical 

 agriculture Professor Miles had an inclination to enter this tield, and 

 this inclination was encouraged by President Abbott and some of the 

 members of the Board of Agriculture. He had filled the professorship 

 of zoology and animal jdiysiology with comi)lete success, and had he 

 consulted his most \cherished tastes alone he would have remained 

 there, but he gradually suffered himself to be called to another field. 

 The duties of "acting superintendent of the farm" were attached to his 

 chair in 1SG4. In 1865 he became }>rofessor of animal jdiysiology and 

 practical agriculture and superintendent of the farm; in 1800 he ceased 

 to teach physiology, and gave his whole time to the agricultural branch 

 of his work; and in 1875 the work of the superintendent of the farm 

 was consigned to other hands, and he confined himself to the professor- 

 ship proper of practical agriculture. 



The farm and its appurtenances, with fields cumbered with stumps^ 

 and undraiued, with inadequate and jjoorly constructed buildings, with 

 inferior live stock, and everything i)rimitive. were in poor condition for 

 the teaching or the successful practice of agriculture. Professor Miles* 

 first business was to sec these things in order. Year by ^ear some- 

 thing was done to remove evils or improve existing features in some 

 of the departments of the life and management of the premises, till the 

 concern in a certain measure a]»i)roached the sui)erintendent's ideal — 

 as being a laboratory for teaching agriculture, conducting experiments, 

 and training men, rather than a money making establishment. 



In this new field, Professor Kedzie says. Professor ]\Iiles was even 

 more ])0])ular than before with the students, and created an enthusiasm 

 for opeiations and labors of the farm which had been regarded before 

 as a disagreeable drudgery. The students "were never happier than 

 when detailed for a day's work with Dr. ^liles in laying out some difficult 

 ditch or surveying sonu^ field. One r(^ason why he was so ])0])ular was 

 that he was not afj'aid of soiling his hands. His favorite uniform for 

 field work was a ])air of brown overalls. The late Judge Tenney came 

 to a gang of students at work on a troublesome ditch and incpiired 

 where he could find Dr. IMiles. 'That man in overalls down in the 

 quicksands of the ditch is Dr. Miles'; the professor of practical agri- 

 culture was in touch with the soil." 



