180 STATE BOAED OF AGKICULTUKE. 



round themjelves with agricultural libraries and scientific works, that by their 

 researches, and truths developed, will aid us in achieving success in our laborious 

 pursuits. 



Brotlier farmers, we may congratulate ourselves that to some extent, at least, 

 a new era is dawning upon the agricultural interests of our country. From one 

 end of our land to the other the minds of our farmers are waking up to the 

 necessity of a more thorough knowledge of the facts and the scientific truths 

 that underlie our success, and of how we can best meet and overcome the many 

 obstacles we find in our way ; how to bring our soil most readily and surely to a 

 higher state of cultivation, that we may reap more abundant harvests ; what 

 fertilizers we shall use, and how to apply them ; w^hat crops can be most success- 

 fully grown in given localities, and how to produce them in their highest per- 

 fection with the least labor ; and what stock to grow, and how to manage the 

 same ; and also are earnestly inriuiring which among the niimerous birds and 

 the myriads of insects are the friends, and which the enemies, of the orchard 

 and the field, and how to encourage and protect the one class, and successfully 

 overcome and destroy the other. 



In this connection, with great pleasure we refer, as an illustration of the 

 advantages resulting from investigation and discussion, to the Michigan State 

 Pomological Society, by whose meetings and publications so much information 

 of vast importance to the fruit-grower has been disseminated, and which has 

 tended to develop that great interest in our State until Michigan stands to-day 

 in the very front rank of fruit-growing States, having won the highest prize in 

 the great national pomological exhibition at Chicago last fall; and we most 

 earnestly wish that their annually published report could be placed in the hands 

 of every fruit-grower in our State. 



The object of this, as of other farmers' Institutes that are being held in dif- 

 ferent parts of our State the present month, is to investigate the various impor- 

 tant subjects to which we have referred, as well as the no less important one of 

 how we shall most successfully beautify our rural homes, and throw around them; 

 more evidence of culture and refinement. 



Among the many signs of the times from which we predict the advancement 

 of our farmers in a knowledge of their occupation, is the fact that not only are 

 they everywhere calling on each other for the results of their practical experi- 

 ence and investigations, but no longer do we hear the intelligent tiller of the 

 soil scouting the idea of " hooh-f arming," or the necessity of the farmer having 

 a knowledge of science ; but, on the other hand, we are turning earnestly to our 

 colleges, planted in the interests of agricultural education, in the front rank of 

 which we proudly behold that of our own State, and saying to them. Give us 

 the results of your scientific researches, and long and carefully conducted exper- 

 iments, and show us on your finely laid-out fields and extensive gardens the- 

 highest style of improved husbandry, — and we are not calling in vain. 



We are happy to see so large a gathering of the intelligent farmers and their 

 families of Oakland county and vicinity, and also to be able to announce that 

 the president and several of the professors of the Agricultural College are pres- 

 ent. You Avill therefore please proceed to organize the Institute by choosing a 

 chairman and secretary. 



The remainder of the first evening session was occupied by President T. C. 

 Abbot, who gave his lecture on "Industrial Education," substantially as given 

 with other lectures following this record of the Institutes. 



