GRAYLING INSTITUTE. 845 



Mr. President, I believe I have fulfilled my mission. I thank you, ladies 

 and gentlemen, for your attention. 



The following paper was then presented: 



AN EXPERIENCE. 

 BY B.ON. 0. PALMEE. 



In 1879, knowing something of the physical geography of Michigan, I 

 came to this section to escape the effects of *'hay fever," from which I was 

 an extreme sufferer. The altitude, about six hundred feet above the lakes, 

 promised immunity from malaria, and the promise is fulfilled, as I have never 

 known an instance of malarial disease originating here. 



I came filled with the common prejudice against the place on account of 

 the climate and the supposed barren soil. I met gentlemen of culture and 

 business experience who attempted to combat my ideas of the utter worth- 

 lessness of the country, save for pine logs and the pleasures of hunting and 

 fishing. I listened as patiently as I could, as an unbeliever, thinking only 

 that they had land to sell. Tiring of the confinement in this then shanty 

 village, I made inquiries of where there were settlers and began visiting the 

 farmers' homes. In most cases I found poverty; not one in ten owning a 

 team, but all doing something in agriculture with such means as they had. 

 I compared results with those I was accustomed to in the old well tilled por- 

 tions of the State, and with the approach of cold weather returned home 

 with my heart filled with pity for the unfortunate beings who had been be- 

 guiled with the hope of making a home in this, to me, worse than desert. 



The next season my old enemy drove me here again, and I visited the same- 

 homes and many new ones, and found, much to my surprise, improvement 

 everywhere. Small fields of clover were proving that clover could be grown. 

 Oats, rye and barley promised well, and I had never seen such vegetable 

 growth as I found on every hand. An accident made me owner of a quarter 

 section of the plains, and I determined to experiment. My experience is the 

 same as of most settlers, — not knowing how to handle the soil, or what to 

 raise, — but after six years I find on the land I deemed most barren clover that 

 cuts from one and a half to two and a half tons of cured hay per acre ; wheat, 

 of extra quality, yielding from eight to twenty-five bushels per acre; oats, 

 twenty to forty-five bushels ; corn, sixty to one hundred bushels of ears,- 

 though corn is uncertain yet on account of the early and late frosts common 

 to new countries; 'and vegetables and small fruits unexcelled anywhere either 

 in quality or quantity. I believe that fire has been the only bane; its annual 

 visitations having burned the vegetable mold from the soil, and if that be 

 returned by proper cultivation we shall have the '' Garden of Michigan " on 

 the quick soil of the "barrens," where we now have the greatest natural 

 beauty, the purest air and water and the most healthful portion of the State. 



REMARKS BY PRESIDENT WILLITS. 



I have been asked to speak of the relationship of the Agricultural College- 

 to experimental work. 



When I went to that institution I found its principal endowment to consist 



