48 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



kind of assistance that is now given to the carrier. The value of production 

 must always exceed that of commerce, and will receive protection correspond- 

 ing to its value when producers firmly and meaningly demand their rights. 



I hope to live to see a State weather service established at this college, to 

 collect and diffuse information respecting the relations of meteorology to 

 agriculture, and especially to give warning of coming dangers which threaten 

 the producing class from changes in the weather. The college should be 

 made the center of scientific information relating to soil production, in its 

 widest sense. 



PUBLIC HEALTH. 



Although it is more than three years since I declined a reappointment as a 

 member of the State Board of Health, it is difficult to convince the public that 

 I am no longer a member of that board. I still receive numerous communi- 

 cations relating to matters that come properly before the State Board of Health. 

 I still feel that the public health is as important a subject to farmers as any 

 class of our citizens. Health is a prime condition of production. Not only 

 is the farmer interested in this question as a producer, but the markets of 

 the country are disturbed by sickness. Exchange of produce is thrown into 

 wild disorder by an outbreak of yellow fever or cholera. In mere dollars 

 and cents the farmer is interested in the public health, to say nothing of 

 saving life and averting woe. The epidemic of yellow fever in the Mississippi 

 valley, in 1S79, cost the people of the United States $175,000,000. This 

 enormous loss did not fall solely upon the communities where the yellow 

 destroyer scattered graves thick as snow fl.akes, but in its final adjustment 

 this loss reached the pocket of every producer in our land. In commerce as 

 in pathology, "If one member suffers all the other members suffer with it." 



I have therefore thought that it was not out of place even for a professor in 

 an agricultural college to take an interest in the public health. In this 

 spirit I have taken a lively interest in all efforts to preserve the public liealth. 

 As president of the American Public Health Association, I attended the meet- 

 ing of the executive committee in St. Paul, and the annual meeting in Indian- 

 apolis. I also attended the annual meeting of the Sanitary Council of the 

 Mississippi Valley, last April. These journeys cost time and money, for 

 which I received no compensation that does not equally fall to the lot of every 

 citizen in safety of life and security of property. 



In promoting health in this State, I gave a lecture before the sanitary con- 

 vention in Pontiac, on well water, and means of preserving it. 



farmers' institutes. 



I attended the institute at Armada, and had a paper read at the institute at 

 Galesburg, but was prevented from attendance by reason of being a witness in 

 an important trial. 



SORGHUM. 



I still have great confidence in the future of sorghum in Michigan. Last 

 December I attended a meeting of the Sugar Cane Growers' Association of 

 St. Louis, where I found much to encourage the cultivation of sorghum not 

 only for syrup but for sugar. 



Being convinced that sorghum was of great value as a forage crop, especially 

 on sandy soils, I spent most of my spring vacation in visiting the sandy central 

 belt of our State, calling public attention to this plant as a valuable food for 

 stock. I wrote for the press several articles on the subject which have been 



