430 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



familiar and given a general dexterity, while exact instructions and genuine 

 science have raised them out of mere routine. 



Such I believe to be the system which best solves the problem of education 

 for farmers and artisans. It gives educated, not merely skilled, labor; and 

 that is what we need. The skill will come quickly afterward, with added zest 

 and efficiency from the course of study pursued, and instead of having simply 

 good workers, or simply operatives, we shall have good men in every sense of the 

 term. 



I have treated this subject almost entirely from the standpoint of theory 

 founded ui)on the nature of the case; but I have done so to show how care- 

 fully the policy of our State Agricultural College has been studied with refer- 

 ence to its ends. I might have shown how this policy has been largely the 

 result of careful experiment; how the course of study has been adjusted and 

 readjusted to meet the discovered wants of such students; and how the work 

 system has been modified as experience suggested. But it seemed to me wise 

 to go back of these facts to search for some of the principles which explain 

 the facts. 



If still you say, '' 'The proof of the pudding is in the eating,'" show us the 

 fruits of your labor," we shall not hesitate, though sucli an institution is not 

 like the dwarf peartree, hurried to its maturity. Having just reached its ma- 

 jority, its fruitfulness is scarcely yet fairly tested. 



Of the 186 graduates more than three-fifths have left us within the last five 

 years and few of these are old enough to have made a name, especially in 

 agriculture, where capital as well as wisdom counts so much. We only know 

 that almost half are directly engaged in farming or gardening, and steadily 

 making a name for themselves, their college and their calling. Most of the 

 rest are working their way into influence by teaching or active business life; 

 and of the few who choose to put their practical education to use in law or 

 medicine, we have as yet no reason to be ashamed. Of many of the older ones 

 the college is proud already for the good work they do in earnest labor. To 

 the whole body she points in the spirit of the Roman matron, saying, "These 

 are my jewels." 



But there are other evidences that this work, however Imperfect as yet, is 

 aimed aright. This pioneer in such education long trod the road alone, meet- 

 ing only the questioning glance and conditional praise. Now, among all the 

 experiments in industrial education, ours is pointed to as the successful one. 

 Our own neighbors are beginning to trust it. Enquirers from distant states 

 come to visit it and study its methods, and some of them send their sons. The 

 leading Scotch journal sends a representative to this country to study our agri- 

 culture and the prospects of our fresh meat trade with Great Britain. In his 

 report upon the agricultural colleges of the land, your own is chosen as best 

 worthy description, and while he finds our agriculture some two hundred 

 years behind that of Britain, he pronounces the college far in advance of sim- 

 ilar institutions of his own country. Let not this seem like boasting, for there 

 is nothing to boast of. We are simply trying to do our duty by the precious 

 interests committed to our charge, and to serve with fidelity, not mere eye- 

 eervice, in the task set ns by the generous people of Michigan. 



