DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 29 



condition of this State Institution, would report tliat in company with the Presi- 

 dent of this Society and members of the Executive Committee, with other promi- 

 nent agriculturists of the State, we visited the College on Wediiesdaj', June 13, 

 1883, and were cordially received by its president and faculty, who were untiring in 

 their efforts to give us every opportunity to view tlie College in all its depart- 

 ments. We spent the day in examining the buildings, the grounds, the stock, the 

 grain, grapes, and fruits, us well as the departments of Education, and found them 

 in complete order, and we see no reason, with the ample provision made by the 

 State for the encouragement of the science of agriculture and a tliorough knowl- 

 edge of all its branches, why the young men and ladies of this State who desire 

 a practical education should not avail themselves of its privileges. In the annual 

 visits of this Society to the College, your Committee believe that improvements 

 are being made and tiie Agricultural College is attaining that standing wiiich is a 

 credit to the agriculturist of the State of Michigan, and every effort should be 

 made on the part of this Society to aid the State Board of Agriculture in their 

 efforts to make this a model institution, for its practical instruction in the science 

 of agriculture. 



All of which is respectfully submitted. 



VVM. CHAMBERLAIN. 

 A. F. WOOD. 

 JOHN LESSITER. 



In the report of Hon. C. G. Luce, Master of the Michigan State Grange, 

 presented to the National Grange on the second day of tlie session in Wash- 

 ington, in December, 1883, he says: 



"For several years our State Grange has appointed a standing committee upon the 

 Agricultural College, with instructions to visit the institutes when in session, exam- 

 ine, commend, criticise, or suggest as in their judgment the case requires. This 

 course has brought the Grange and College into very close and very Iriendly rela- 

 tions. This has done much to strengthen the college with tlie public. And to-day 

 it is not claiming too much to say that it rests on as solid a foundation as any of our 

 institutions. It now ranks with any of them in confidence, esteem, and usefulness, 

 in a State that we believe to be justly proud of its educational and charitable insti- 

 tutions. 



"Tlie farmers are more and more, each year, taking charge of it. This is true of 

 the people at large, on the board of agriculture, and in the Legislature. More and 

 more they are leeling that it is our college. The whole number of students in 

 attendance during the year 1882 was 21G. The average for ten years has been very 

 nearly 200. A large number of these never complete the course. Some of them 

 come in as specials, to study some specific subject. And some commence with the 

 intention of completing the course, but for various reasons fall out by the way. The 

 whole number of graduates in the twenty-three classes, has been 272. The smallesli 

 graduating class was in 1862, consisting of only five students. The largest was in 

 ISSl. and consisted of thirty-three. Of the 272 graduates, 103 are farmers, 60 others 

 are engaged in various industrial pursuits; 109 are in the profession, or engaged in 

 commercial pursuits. Of course all of the graduates are comparatively young men. 



"It is too early to take the full measure of their success, or want of it. More than 

 seventy of these graduates are on farms in the State of Michigan. I enjoy the per- 

 sonal acquaintance of many of them, and know that they are adding materially to 

 the intellectual forces to be" found on the farms. And they are thus aiding the tillers 

 of the soil, in building upon the only real solid foundation, knowledge. I venture the 

 assertion that full as many of these students remain on the farms as would have done 

 so if they had not enjoyed the benefits of a college education, and many more thaii 

 would have done so if they had graduated at our University, While there is still 

 room for improvement, as all will admit, yet we do know tliat our college is doing 

 much to educate the farmers of the State. And we shall hail with delight the day 

 when graduates of the Michigan Agricultural College are to be found on the farms 

 in every neighborhood and township. No one now questions that it was the height 

 of wisdom to maintain it as a distinct agricultural school, with its one single depart- 

 ment." 



NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL CONVENTION. 



The Hon. George B. Loring, United States Commissioner of Agriculture, 

 called a series of sever^ll conventions on various departments of agricultural 



