LECTURES AND ESSAYS READ AT INSTITUTES. 3? 7 



grounds between the professors' houses, and there was not a field clear enough 

 of stumps for the use of a mower. 



1861. 



REORGANIZATION OF THE COLLEGE. — CREATION OF A STATE BOARD OF 



AGRICULTURE. 



The Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Hon. J. M. Gregory first, and 

 afterwards the board of education, recommended that a new board be created 

 to have charge of the State Agricultural College. It had become the policy of 

 the State to commit each of its institutions to a board of its own, as it has 

 more recently, to have in the Legislative houses a standing committee upon 

 each. 



There was besides considerable dissatisfaction with the cutting down of the 

 course of study, and the displacing from it of literary studies. The old idea 

 of the founders had been, to quote from an article in the Detroit Tribune, 

 written by Mr. W. D. Cochrane, not long before his death: " The grand 

 idea that self-sustaining labor can go hand in hand with mental culture and 

 refinement of taste." The feeling prevailed amongst farmers that in their 

 own institution their sons were to receive an education not inferior to that 

 given in any college. 



In December, 1859, after the adoption of Mr. Gregory's plan, the matter 

 came up in the executive committee of the State Agricultural Society, and a 

 committee was appointed to inquire into the condition of the college and to 

 report in October. This committee, consisting of James Bayley of Troy, Dr. 

 George K. Johnson of Grand Kapids, and Frederick Fowler of Hillsdale, 

 reported that the objects of the college were: 1st. The explaining of the 

 philosophy of agriculture, imparting a knowledge of the laws of nature that 

 underlie the cultivation of the soil; and, 2d. Affording mental culture and 

 discipline to enable the student to comprehend and reason about the laws. 

 Thev say : "As every farmer must be a citizen, as his rights of property and 

 person are both affected by the constitution of society, and as his habits of 

 thought are in great part formed during his collegiate course, he is certainly 

 as much interested as any one can be in securing a thorough and substantial 

 education. * * Our sons should not be satisfied with anything less than a 

 full course in science and literature." They recommend the transfer of the 

 care of the college to a State Board of Agriculture. The report was adopted 

 in December, 1860, and a committee appointed to memorialize the Legislature 

 on the subject. 



A bill to this effect and to re-organize the college was introduced into the 

 Senate, and was much discussed in the committees there, and by the news- 

 papers outside. Mr. Williams, ex-president of the college, was a member of 

 the Senate, and his influence is plainly visible in the provisions of the bill. 

 Mr. J. C. Holmes was also freely consulted, as is shown in various manuscript 

 memoranda. Two curious provisions of the printed bill were excluded before 

 its passage. The one forbids the requiring of attendance of students at any 

 religious exercises if, of age, he objects, or if either parent objects. The other 

 forbids the existence of secret societies of students. The bill in the Senate 

 -was in charge of Hon. Ira H. Butterfield. It was passed by the Senate by a 

 vote of 24 to 5, 



In the House a bill creating a State Board of Agriculture was passed with but 

 one negative, but not being approved by the Senate committee, the Senate 



