213 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Mr. Luce. — We have now gone througli with the entire i^rogramme of exer- 

 cises prepared for this institute, and as some of the hidies and gentlemen have 

 been present every moment of the sessions, I suppose it about time that you 

 were discharged from duty. 



President Abbot. — I should be sorry to have this convention of farmers, who 

 have come here to meet iis, go away without having an opi)ortunity to give 

 expression to the feeling and thought we have in regard to this institute. I am 

 very glad to be able to say, that representing the State board of agriculture who 

 sent us here, it will be our pleasing duty to take back with us a most favorable 

 account of our reception here, and of the pleasure that Ave, through the college, 

 have enjoyed in being with you. We feel greatly encouraged by the interest 

 felt in these institutes, and we shall go back to our work feeling that we and 

 the farmers pull together. 



On motion of N. McKnight, a vote of thanks was unanimously tendered to 

 the professors of the college for their services, and after the chairman, on behalf 

 of the county agricultural society, through whose efforts this institute had been 

 secured, had thanked the citizens of Coldwater for their generous hospitality, 

 the institute adjourned. 



ADDIIESSES AXD DISCUSSIONS.* 



THE PREJUDICE AGAINST INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS. AX ADDRESS DE- 

 LIVERED AT THE FARMERS' INSTITUTE AT ARMADA, 

 ROCHESTER, AND COLDWATER, MICHIGAN. 



BY TKESIDEXT AUBOT OF THE STATE AGRICULTUKAL COLLEGE. 



A few winters ago I met in Washington a very pleasant and intelligent gen- 

 tleman, who from his large wealth was about to give some sixty or seventy 

 thousand dollars for the advancement of higher education. He had been for 

 some years, and was still, the president of a State Agricultural Society, and was 

 commissioned by the Governor, under a State law, with almost desj)otic power 

 over cattle suspected of a prevalent disease. These Avere evidences of the high 

 esteem in Avhich he Avas held. 



He Avas a farmer. Did he then endoAV some chair of agriculture, or agricul- 

 tural chemistry, of Acterinary science, of horticulture, zoology, or entomology, 

 in some institution ? Did he fit out an experiment station, like some of those 

 in Germany, to analyze fertilizers, to stud}'' the fattening properties of different 

 kinds of food, and tlieir digestibility, or to study any other of the perj^lexing 

 problems which his own business could haA'e suggested to him ? Did he exemplify 

 on some farm the effects of high culture, like Mechi, or of thorough drainage, 

 or in some such Avay make the lessons of an advanced agriculture visible to less 

 informed farmers? Did he help along an agricultural college, or establish an 

 agricultural library ? 



These ailflresses were delivered at more tliau one of the regiHar Institutes, and are referred to 

 the in'eceding reports. 



