GRAYLING INSTITUTE. 343 



sity should devote at least three hours a day to some mechanical manual 

 labor. 



I will tell you why I should do it. I would do it because it is better for 

 the young men. One of the very first things a young man ought to learn — 

 I say young meyi particularly — is how to get a living. Prof. Mc Louth thinks 

 a young woman ought to know how to get a living too in order that she may 

 take care of herself, but I am inclined to think if the young men all know 

 how to get a living the young women can perhaps " jump on to the bicycle;" 

 but you cannot make a nation such as this country ought to be unless every 

 man feels within himself the consciousness that he is able to take care of him- 

 self. You must give him that sort of independence which I am happy to say 

 is so common among the farmers of this country, more so among the farm- 

 ers than among any other class of the community. As long as he can take care 

 •of himself he is a true, independent American citizen, as a free man ought 

 to be. 



But if he feels that he is dependent upon somebody who knows more about 

 the proper thiug to do than he does, somebody he has to look to for his sup- 

 port, he ceases to be an independent American citizen, because he feels his 

 dependence, and as long as he feels that he can not act as though he didn't 

 feel it ; it is not human nature. 



Farming on the plains is a subject to which I have given a good deal of 

 ihought and observation for some years. More than 15 years ago I was land 

 commissioner of the Flint & Pere Marquette railroad, looking after its land 

 grants and the value of its lands. Some of our land is very much of the 

 character of the plains here, but from what I have learned here I think your have 

 more clay in your plains than we have. You are higher above the lakes. 

 Those plains will run from 100 to 150 feet above Lake Michigan, which is sub- 

 stantially the same level with Lake Huron. These plains are from 500 to 

 600 feet above the lakes, though perhaps some of them further south in 

 Iosco county are lower. 



There is no trouble in getting water, and the first question that arose 

 in my mind concerning the plains was, will they leach? If manure is 

 applied to these lands will the rains that fall upon this manure wash out 

 the soluble portion of it and carry it down so deep that plant roots cannot 

 find it? That was the first question. Dr. Miles told you today that his 

 atten'ion Avas first called to these plains in 1872. I happened to be with him 

 on that occasion. We were in Lake county. We had had a hard day's tramp 

 of about 25 miles — this was before the railroad — and on the bank 

 of one of those beautiful little lakes which abound in Lake county, the num- 

 ber of which give it its name, we made our camp. One of our objects was to 

 learn something about the soil of the plains. While our camp was being put 

 up we took a water pail. Dr. Miles and I, and went down to the bank of the 

 little lake and he selected a piece of ground as a specimen of the plains, 

 and with his hands scooped out a liitle place perhaps six inches 

 deep, taking all the soil there was in that six inches, and measured 

 it in a pint cup we had with us to drink from, and put it in the pail, and he 

 had two quarts of this earth ; then he dipped up some water from the lake 

 and poured it into the pail until he got the pail pretty near full 

 of water and stirred it up. The water dissolved all there was in it that 

 would dissolve. He then turned off the soluble portion, leaving that 

 which would not dissolve in the bottom of the pail. He washed it again and 



