308 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



a saw-bill, you will not see many new investments made in saw mills. With 

 salt only seventy cents j)or barrel, you must not look for a rapid increase of 

 salt wells, except as incident to saw mills. 



It must not be forgotten that hitherto the growth of our cities has been 

 mainly dependent upon these two great factors, lumber and salt. As they pros- 

 pered our cities expanded and our business Nourished ; as they languished our 

 cities made no progress and business became stagnant. 



In the light of this experience it would seem as if the duty of every good 

 citizen was well defined. The elements of progress and prosperity are still 

 within our grasp. Shall we co-operate and make use of them? 



The characteristicts of a farm life are so diversified and numerous, from 

 that of the gentleman farmer, who examines his stock with his kid gloves on, 

 down to the toiling ditch-digger, that it is hard to conceive of a taste or an 

 appetite in the individual but what can be satiated. 



13etwcen the felling of the huge forest trees or the planting and hoeing of 

 potatoes and corn and up to the importing of Jersey thoroughbreds and Perch- 

 eron Norman full-bloods, tliere are many intermediate grades of industry to 

 tickle the fancy of the fastidious, as well as to indulge the cravings of the 

 miserly. 



But, ladies and gentlemen, I do not mean that we all should become grang- 

 ers — I simply insist that a great many of our citizens could, without interrup- 

 tion of or interference with their particular professional, mechanical or busi- 

 ness employments, own and cultivate or cause to be cultivated a small farm if 

 not a large one, and thus aid in building up our cities and counties. 



On behalf of the farmers of our county let me extend to the gentlemen who 

 have come to aid us from outside of our county, tlieir earnest welcome, and 

 on behalf of our citizens residing within our two cities, let me assure all of 

 our guests that we welcome them to our midst, and we hope you will find your 

 association with our citizens as pleasant and agreeable as we feel confident your 

 presence will be beneficial to us. 



President Abbot, of the Agricultural College, gave an address, setting forth 

 the courses and mctliods of instruction at that institution. 



The Bay City Tribune gave tlie following notice of the address : 



Presidoit Abbot was introduced and delivered an interesting and practical 

 address upon "Manual Labor in Colleges." lie described the plan adopted 

 at the college, of combining manual labor on the farm with the study of the 

 science of farming, explaining Avhy the plan was adopted, and showing by nu- 

 merous incidents and instances that the course had proved to be a wise one. 

 The general jilan of instruction, practical in all its details, was narrated, and 

 it was particularly dwelt upon that practice makes perfect, that empirical rules 

 will fail ; that greater confidence is always reposed in those of the professions 

 who liave experience as well as theory at their command. The admirable point 

 was clearly made by the speaker, tliat in the course pursued at the college the 

 students lived among their studies and thus mingled study and life. The 

 closing remarks were upon the necessity of the work in order to be a suc- 

 cessful farmer, and it was related that of all the students who had attended 

 the institution in twenty years there had been but one who did not take a lively 

 interest in the work of the farm. The time each student is required to labor 

 upon the farm is three hours each day, — they thus gain a practical knowledge 

 as well as intellectual improvement. The remarks were enlivened by the rela- 



