220 STATE BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. 



EVENING SESSION. 



What Shall we do with our Straw— Geo. L. Sheldon, Climax. 

 Dairjiug — Mrs. S, M. Nichols, Kalamazoo. 

 Discussion and questions and answers. 



Mr. "William A. Blake, of Galesburg, gave the following address of welcome : 



To you, Mr. President, to the officers of your club, to the president and pro- 

 fessors of the State Agricultural College, and to all who lend their presence to 

 make up this combined farmers' institute, in behalf of the citizens of Gales- 

 burg and the surrounding agriculturists, I say welcome. 



It is in no empty formal expression that I make use of this word, but in its 

 most empTiatic and hroadest sense. 



A retrospective glance over the year takes us back in our mind's eye to the 

 farmers' institute held in this church, under the auspices of the County Hus- 

 bandman's Club one year ago. 



Then the signification of the word welcome was made unmistakably clear by 

 the friendly manner in which our local committees received their many guests, 

 and the excellent and substantial way in which the wives and daugiiters pro- 

 vided for the requirements of the inner man. 



That was a very pleasant and a very useful meeting. It commenced with a 

 very good attendance, and as the sessions progressed the audience and interest 

 increased until we had a packed house of earnest, attentive people, thoroughly 

 enthused with the interests of the meeting. I expect no less favorable results 

 from this meeting. 



We are assembling from this and adjacent counties, and from the more 

 remote parts of the State, to counsel together in regard to the all-important 

 interests of agriculture. Interests of such vast importance that the very 

 existence of the human race is dependent upon their successful management. 



In contemplating the magnitude of the subject involved, we are led to more 

 fully appreciate the importance of this meeting, including, as it will, educated 

 professional instructors, eminent scientific demonstrators, and those whose 

 minds are stored with useful knowledge, obtained through an earnest, intelli- 

 gent, and practical experience. 



The unsettled questions involved in this subject of agriculture, in a general 

 sense, are almost innumerable. The lines of thought entertained by different 

 individuals in relation thereto are wonderfully at variance. 



We see men taking their positions all along the line, from the watchful 

 observer of the moon's phases, by which he is guided in his sowing, in his 

 planting, and in laying his fence blocks, to the scientific chemist who is almost 

 ready to ignore the services of our mother earth, and produce the wheat, the 

 corn, and the vegetables, within his own laboratory. 



Our Legislature, seeing the necessity of a more universal and complete 

 knowledge of the principles of agriculture, provided for the establishment of 

 an educational institution especially devoted to the dissemination of such 

 knowledge as would be useful and practical to those engaged in agricultural 

 pursuits. 



This institution being established, with its full corps of eminent professors, 

 it was soon discovered that while it was everything that could be desired to the 

 students who could avail themselves of the superior advantages of its teach- 

 ings, the number of persons reached, in proportion to the great number 

 interested, was too small to satisfy the energetic managers of the institution. 



As the people generally could not go to the college and receive the benefits 



