108 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



was rated about third in the production of orchard tree fruit and second 

 among all states of this country in the production of small fruits. Be- 

 cause of our geographical location and environmental conditions we have 

 an endless variety of i)roducts which may be found in the Horticultural 

 classification. You have almost everything in the vegetable line, in 

 the small fruit line, in the production of onions, celery, lettuce, pepper- 

 mint, contract farm seeds and a great long list which I might enumerate; 

 almost everything except citrous fruit and cotton would come within our 

 list. You notice in Agriculture we produce the staple crops. We have 

 the kind of live stock you usually find in a live stock state. The point 

 I want to make is this, so far as scientific research for the purpose of 

 given results in the case of the problems of the Agriculturist and Horti- 

 culturist in the State of Michigan we have a greater variety of needs 

 and demands upon our research workers than is the case in any other 

 State in the great continent. It has been a very difficult matter to meet 

 all of the problems that have been placed before us. This has been par- 

 ticularly true during the last 60 j-ears. During the period of the war 

 about 40 young men working in the Agriculture Division and Experi- 

 ment Station were engaged in some form of military service. The turn- 

 over in the Experiment Station of the United States during the war 

 period amounted to 80%. In some cases replacement was made but in 

 almost all instances it meant replacement without experience. It meant 

 this, it was a very diflficult matter to meet all of the questions that were 

 brought to us and an impossibility to solve all of these. 



I want to call attention just briefly to some things relating to the 

 facilities and policies so far as the Experiment Station is concerned now. 

 Please bear in mind first, that in all of this almost endless variety so 

 far as production is concerned. We have first, a greater number of de- 

 mands than any other Institution in the Country. When I came to this 

 Institution on the Agricultural side of the Campus were two depart- 

 ments; a Department of Horticulture and a Department of practical 

 Agriculture with a Professorship in each case and not a very large group 

 of assistants. Since that time the Agricultural Division has been organ- 

 ized and developed to a point where we now have 11 Departments: 

 the Department of Horticulture, Forestry, Soils, Crop Management, 

 Farm Courses, Poultry, Agriculture, Educational Farm Management, 

 Animal and Dairy Husbandry. There has been a period of organiza- 

 tion so far as the Agricultural Division is concerned throughout the 

 past 18 or 20 years. The Organization was practically completed at 

 the meeting of the State Board of Agriculture when a Department of 

 Farm Management was created and a staff appointed. It has been the 

 policy throughout these years to try and build these Departments up 

 uniformly and systematically. 



I would like you while here to bear this in mind and look all of these 

 Departments over and see whether this Institution has succeeded in 

 the Development of these various Departments in a uniform and system- 

 atical way in accordance with the demands which they have to meet. 

 While you are interested in things pertaining to Horticulture, we wish 

 you to see all of the Departments we have in the Agricultural Division. 

 We want you to see our horse barns. One of the Western Horsemen 

 made a remark here two years ago that we had in our horse barns here 

 the best lot of heavy draft horses of any Institution in the United States. 



