AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 455 



WHAT THE COLLEGE HAS DONE FOR PRACTICAL AGRI- 

 CULTURE. 



JAMES SATTERLEE, A GRADUATE OF THE COLLEGE, CLASS '69. 



Man3' people, without looking into the matter very deeply, are apt to 

 think, and sometimes make the statement, that our College has not done 

 as much for the advancement of practical agriculture in Michigan as she 

 might or should have done. This may possibly be true, but when we 

 look at the difficulties she has had to contend with we can readily see 

 that more has been accomplished than might reasonably have been 

 expected. 



The literature of practical agriculture, with its text-books and its 

 records of experiments, have had to be re-written during the life of our 

 College. The natural prejudice against book farming, so called, has had 

 to be met and overcome. ^Vith few exceptions teachers have sneered at 

 the value of an education along the lines of farm practice. Although 

 the spirit of the age is changing, many teachers still hold up the literary 

 education as the ideal education, and it is made as attractive as possible. 

 The trend of our district school work, high school work, and literary 

 college work has been toward the development of literary ability, and 

 in lauding the power that comes from ability in that direction. While 

 our College has not been deficient in the spirit of literary excellence, she 

 has done much more to help her graduates to grapple with the changing 

 problems of practical life on the farm. 



Our College has impressed upon her students the dignity and value of 

 manual labor. The value of skill in the use of eye and hand. The value 

 of improved methods in the cultivation of the soil. Above all, she has 

 taught that cultivated brain power is the secret of successful agriculture. 

 The world at large has adopted improved methods of farm work and 

 farm management. Our College course has taught us the principles 

 that underlie the improved practice; has taught us to use our heads as 

 well as our hands. 



.Skilled and able men like Kedzie and Miles and Prentiss, like Beal 

 and Bailey and Taft, Grange, Johnson and Smith, have impressed their 

 personality upon the agricultural practice of our State. We can see it 

 in the improved stock, improved varieties of grain, improved fruits, 

 improved machinery, and in the cultured men and women engaged in the 

 different lines of agricultural work. 



These few things that I have mentioned are upon the surface and plain 

 to all who care to look. Underneath these more practical and necessary 

 things, we know that our College has also taught us the value of beauti- 

 ful home surroundings, and the beauty of home buildinj.'', in which the 

 sacredness of family ties, the responsibilities of citizenship, and the 

 obligation to be true and faithful to ourselves have all been emphasized. 

 In the future these undercurrents of our college work will be strength- 

 ened by the graduates from the ladies' course. We of the older set. who 

 entered here before the close of the first decade, or soon after, can feel 

 and see the changes that have been wrought by our College and its men. 



