20 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



thus had the pleasure of tlie personal acquaintance of all the members of the 

 boards having control of the College, of its ofliccrs, and of many of its work- 

 ing friends, from before its organization ; and the furtlier j)leasuro of seeing it 

 Avin the regard, from year to year, of men who at first doubted the usefulness 

 and final success of the institution. 



LOCATION. 



The Agricultural College is on a farm of G76 57-lOOth acres, lying three 

 and a half miles cast of the city of Lansing. The Ked Cedar Kiver runs 

 througli the farm. The soil is very various, embracing heavy clay, clay loam, 

 sandy loam, sand, peat, and alluvial soil. It is subject to early and late frosts, 

 and lies, according the National statistical atlas of the United States, in a re- 

 gion more subject to droughts than the lands east, west, or soutli of us. The 

 site was selected bv the officers of the State Agricultural Societv. under the 

 restriction which the friends of the College did not approve, but which was 

 part of the statute of organization, that it sliould be within ten miles of Lan- 

 sing, and not cost over $15.00 an acre. 



Latitude of College Hall, as determined by Prof. Carpenter (see his report), 

 is 42° 54" .23, its longitude 84° 29' 00". GO west of Greenwich. Its time is 5m. 

 43-508 sec. behind Detroit time, and 17-504 sec. ahead of Lansing time, and 12m. 

 30-606 sec. ahead of Chicago time : and the elevation of the water-table of Col- 

 lege Hall is 244.52 feet above the level of the Detroit river, and 810.13 feet 

 above the level of the sea. 



The land at the time the college was located on it, was almost in a state of 

 nature. It has now become, as Gov. Baldwin was wont to express the desire 

 that it might, one of the most beautiful places in the State. Its buildings and 

 small fruits are scattered over a park of eighty acres. Tlie Farm, Horticult- 

 ural and Botanical Departments divide up the remaining portion of the land. 



THE PIRST COLLEGE. 



The Michigan Agricultural College is the pioneer of its sort in the L'nited 

 States, and has served to a great extent, as the model upon which the others 

 were founded. 



The Maine Agricultural College professor of Agriculture spent a week with us, 

 and it selected its first instructor of horticulture from among our graduates. All 

 three Presidents of the Massachusetts Agricultural College have visited us, — 

 the first one, Judge French, before the organization of their own. Ezra Cor- 

 nell, the founder of the New York College, the Hon. A. D. White, its Presi- 

 dent, visited us at two different times, a Professor of Agriculture elect spent sev- 

 eral days with us, and their professor of botany is a graduate of this College. 

 Their present farm manager has recently spent a week here. Oflicers of the 

 colleges in Maryland, West Virginia, Indiana, Ohio, Arkansas and Minnesota 

 have visited us. Iowa chose for its president a former member of our Board, 

 and a graduate for its professor of Botany and Horticulture. AVisconsin has 

 a graduate for its professor of Chemistry. Missouri's professor of Agriculture 

 is a graduate of ours; so is the professor of Agriculture in Kansas Agricult- 

 ural College. Tiie ])rcsidcnt of the Illinois Industrial University was once 

 secretary of the Board having cliarge of the Michigan Agricultural College. 

 Harvard University, Cornell University, Minnesota University, have all em- 

 ployed graduates of ours as assistants, and one graduate is the professor of 

 Chemistry in Oberlin University, Oliio. 



Tlie methods pursued here are therefore widely known, and have, to a con- 



