106 MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



When Professor Miles bejian to teaeli in the Michigan Agricultural 

 College, the "new education" was new indeed, and the text-book method 

 still held sway. But the improved methods were gradually taking the 

 place of the old ones, and Professor ]\liles was one of the first to co- 

 operate in them, and he did it with effect. He used text-books, "but 

 his living word." 1 'resident (Mute says, "supphMuented the book; and 

 the animal from iIk^ faiiu under his knife and ours, the shells which he 

 led us to find under rotten logs and along the rivers and lakes, the 

 insects he taught us to collect and classify, the minerals and fossils he 

 had collected on the geological survey of Michigan, all were used to 

 instruct and insjure his students, to cultivate in them the scientific 

 spirit and method." 



Among the moi-e imjiortant books by Professor Miles are Stock- 

 Breeding, which had a wide circulation and has been much used as a 

 class-book; Experiments with Indian Corn, giving the results of some 

 important work which he did at Houghton Farm; Silos and Ensilage, 

 which helped much in diflusing knowledge of the silo in the times when 

 it had to light for recognition; and J^and Drainage. Of his papers, 

 he published in the Popular Science Monthly articles on Scientific 

 Farming at Rothanistead; Ensilage and Fermentation; Lines of Pro- 

 gress in Agricultui-t^; l^rogress in Agi'icultural Science; and How Plants 

 and Animals Grow. To the American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science he contributed papers on Energy as a Factor in Rural 

 Economy; Heredity of Acquired Characters (also to the American 

 Naturalist); Surface Tension of Water and Eva])oration; Energy as 

 a Factor in Nutrition; and Limits of Biological Experiments (also to the 

 American Naturalist). Other articles in the American Naturalist were 

 on Animal ^Mechanics and the Relative Efficiency of Animals as Ma- 

 chines. In the Proceedings of the American Educational Association 

 is an address by him on Instruction in Manual Arts in Connection 

 with Scientific Studies. The records of the U and I Club, of Lansing, 

 of which he was a valued member for ten years, contain papers on a 

 variety of scientific subjects which were read befoi'e it, and were highly 

 a]>])reciated. This list does not contain all of Professor Miles' con- 

 tributions to the literature of science, for throughout his life he wns 

 a frequent contributor to the agricultural and scientific press, and a 

 frequent speaker before associations and institutes, "where his lectures 

 were able and })ractical." 



No special I'ecord is nmde of the work of T*rofessor Miles in the 

 American Agrirulturist, but the correspondence of Professor Thurber 

 with him furnishes ample ](roof that he was one of the most trusted 

 advisers in the editoi'ial conduct of that journal. The familiar tone 

 of I'rofessoi- Tliurlter's letters, and the undoubting assurance with 

 which he asked for information and aid on various subjects, well 

 demonstrate how well the editor knew whom lie eould rely upon in an 

 emergen<y. 



In all ills work the great desire of Professor Miles was to find and 

 present the truth. His merits w^ere recognized by many scientific 

 societies. He was made a corresponding member of the Buffalo Society 

 of Natural Sciences in l.^OiI; a cori'es]tonding nuMuber of the Ento- 

 mological Society of Philadelphia in January, 1803; a correspondent of 



