FARMEES' INSTITUTES. 309 



to our own State from the Centennial exhibition, if as a State we are suffi- 

 ciently wise to make the best of a grand opportunity. It is a manifest fact that 

 Michigan has not received anything like such large accessions of population and 

 capital from immigration in the past as it ought to have done in view of its 

 varied and ample resources — ^which, if more extensively known and appreciated, 

 would make the territory within its borders a peculiarly inviting field for the 

 immio-rant in which to make his home. What we have retained in our midst of 

 the great stream of immigration that has flowed past or through our borders, 

 pouring itself into the great prairie States of the West, has been as it were but 

 a few drops of the stream. This cannot be accounted for by our geographical 

 position. So far as that is concerned we are most favorably situated to receive 

 the flowing tide. One of the i:)rincipal reasons no doubt is the fact that Michi- 

 gan has never been as thoroughly known to the great outside world as it ought 

 to have been, and during its early history was very unfavorahli/ known. It was 

 common to speak of Michigan as an extensive wilderness infested with ague and 

 wolverines. 



The following sentence is from a lecture delivered a number of years ago in 

 Exeter Hall, London: "^Ye read that in America tliere is a certain district 

 called Michigan, so swampy and so vexed with ague tliat in one village the bell 

 rings at twelve o'clock every day for the people to take their quinine." If that 

 was what the people of the old country were reading and hearing about Michi- 

 gan, Ave do not wonder tliat their emigrants should want to stop l^ef ore they came 

 as far as Michigan ; and if from choice or necessity should go further west that 

 they should hurry past us as rapidly as possible, scared by the ghostly sj^ectre of 

 our ao"ue-breeding malaria. Now, whatever remains of these old notions among 

 foreigners, which, in their application to our jiresent condition at least, are as 

 erroneous as they are injurious to us, the Centennial Exhibition will give us a 

 grand and rare opportunity to remove. 



The last Legislature authorized the G-overnor to appoint a Board of Managers, 

 consisting of four persons, representing the Agricultural, Pomological, Mining, 

 and Manufacturing interests of this State. It is the duty of tliis Board of Man- 

 agers to supervise the transportation and provide storage at the place of ship- 

 ment for such works of art or products of the soil and mine or manufactures 

 as indinduals may desire to send. It is also the duty of these managers to 

 make such arrangements for freight as may be most advantageous to exhibitors. 



Jfow, amongst all our industrial organizations, the State Agricultural Society, 

 the Pomological Society, the lumbermen of the State, and tlie owners of mines, 

 and the different branches of mechanical industry, should all be animated with a 

 spirit of honorable rivalry, — each resolved to do its best, and if possible to outdo 

 the otliers, provoking one another to devise large and liberal things, — that Michi- 

 gan may be represented as she is worthy to be in that exhibition. Given the neces- 

 sary means, and good judgment and honesty in their expenditure, and there is 

 no reason why Michigan should take a back seat in that exhibition. She may 

 stand proud and pre-eminent among this grand union of States. We may 

 exhibit almost every variety of soil, showing that we have lands tliat invite the 

 horticulturist, pomologist, tlie agriculturalist, the dairyman, and the stock 

 breeder to the expenditure of capital and labor, with the certainty of a large 

 return. For many varieties of fruit, and these among the most profitable to 

 cultivate, this State is not excelled, if indeed equalled by any other in the union. 



We have ample forests producing some of the most useful timbers in the 

 world. We are not particularly anxious that these forests should be cut down ; 



