450 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



nearly twenty years, I shall be pardoned if I seem to attach too much 

 importance to what I consider one of the most important questions 

 settled which ever affected the vital interest of the State of Michigan. 

 The loj'alty of the society to the College is not less now than in its 

 earlier history. Instead of being its progenitor it acts in unison with it 

 as a friend and brother. The great work of educating the farmer, the 

 citizen and the student has been transferred to this grand institution 

 where it properly belongs. No grander monument need be erected to the 

 wisdom and foresight of the State Agricultural Society than is here 

 located, in this beautiful spot adorned by nature, and by the wisdom of 

 the architects who have made the wilderness become the dwelling place 

 of science, art, adornment and usefulness. 



If in the progress of events the State Agricultural Society shall have 

 reached the end of its career, and is no longer needed as a stimulus to 

 agricultural operations, stock breeding, etc. (which God grant may never 

 happen), it will have a place in history as one of the promoters, and the 

 main one, of this greatest and first institution of its Idnd in the United 

 States. In believing the State Agricultural Societj^ as directly con- 

 nected in its relations to the College, let me ask that in your days of 

 prosperity, you may as cheerfully give of your ability to strengthen and 

 aid the State society as it gave its assistance in helping to secure the 

 grand benefits, which as a College, it and you enjoy. 



With the knowledge that I may be trespassing upon your time, per- 

 haps a little history, the trials and tribulations through which the Col- 

 lege passed before reaching its present commanding position may not 

 be amiss. Previous to the passage of the law forming the College, 

 scientific agriculture in its elemental nature was taught in the Normal 

 School in Ypsilanti. In March, 1853, during the discussion of the needs 

 of an agricultural college, and before any legislation had been enacted 

 with reference to it, the regents of the University at Ann Arbor issued 

 a circular announcing that a free course of lectures would be given in 

 the University of Michigan upon agricultural science, commencing on 

 the 27th day of April and closing on the 2Sth day of June, the subjects 

 being theoretical and practical agriculture. It has always appeared to 

 me that by ''taking time by the forelock," as the saying goes, the regents 

 thought that such a course would be an argument that a separate in- 

 stitution to teach agriculture would not be necessary, and the University 

 would be strengthened in having control of agricultural training as well 

 as the other branches taught; and who will blame them. So well had 

 the plans been laid, so imbued had some of the leading newspapers of 

 the State become with the idea that no separate institution of learning 

 was needed, that years elapsed before the friends of the College who 

 believed it should be independent in its work and management, felt 

 secure in its permanency so far as location was concerned. 



To show how the State Agricultural Society felt upon the question 

 of independence from other institutions of learning, I quote from the 

 report of the State Board of Agriculture in 1863, page 21, and others 

 following, and also to call your attention to the acknowledgments of 

 the Board of Agriculture to the State Agricultural Society for its earnest 

 and effective work in its behalf. In presenting what I have, it has been 

 with the idea that a fair understanding of the mutual relations of the 

 Agricultural Society with the College would not detract from the prestige 



