LECTURES AND ESSAYS READ AT INSTITUTES. 255 



the centennial exhibition was inaugurated and the commissioners from this 

 State appointed to select and forward any exhibits that might be offered for 

 the far-off exhibition, the response of the people of the State for the first few 

 months was very discouraging to the commissioners, but as more correct infor- 

 mation was disseminated, and the State pride appealed to (although the Leg- 

 islature had appropriated only the small sum of $7,500), the spirit of our peo- 

 ple became aroused and when the exhibition opened it soon became an 

 aclinowledged fact that Michigan exceeded any other State in its exhibition of 

 the jDroducts of its orchards, forests, mines, fresh water fisheries, salt, and 

 manufactures from wood, and well to the front in its cereals and grasses, it 

 took the first award on its school system, and had a very creditable show in 

 many other important articles. The Calumet and Hecla Copper Mining 

 Company, of the Lake Superior district, paid $12,000 for a model of their 

 stamping works beside the expense of transportation for tlie purpose of exhib- 

 iting it at the centennial, where it not only received the first award but 

 universal favorable comment. With such a record for so new a State in com- 

 petition with the world, language is almost inadequate to portray the great 

 value to the best interests of the people of the State growing out of our system 

 of education on the subject of agriculture and and its kindred arts, and for its 

 illustration in a practical form growing out of the holding of State, district, 

 and county fairs, and of the valuable education and emulation given to our 

 producers by such exhibitions, and the resulting competition to excel in all 

 their future efforts. 



Therefore, I say, go forward with unabated courage, improve and add, too, 

 where we can in the right direction, and if error of judgment or practice appear, 

 prune it out with an unsparing hand, and the time is not far distant, if not 

 already here, when Michigan will stand almost unchallenged at the front, not 

 only in i<^s university and system of literary schools, but in its cheap and 

 efficient means and methods of imparting and obtaining not only a thorough 

 educational but practical knowledge of the great and important subject of 

 agriculture and its kindred arts. 



EXPERLMENT STATIONS. 



BT FKEEMAK FEANKLIN. 

 [Read at Berrien Institute,] 



Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen. The subject assigned me (viz., experi- 

 mental stations) is one which, had I had any choice in the matter, I should have 

 by no means chosen. The establishment of experimental stations or farms in 

 the United States is of such recent date that but few statistics or reports are 

 available from which to glean the necessary information to make an essay 

 either interesting or instructive. But as it is not expected that the essayist 

 should do more than merely introduce the subject to the attention of this 

 intelligent body of agriculturists, I therefore feel less hesitancy in presenting 

 this topic for your consideration. Since God issued the mandate, "By the 

 sweat of thy brow shalt thou gain thy bread," labor has been a necessity with 

 man. No occupation is so essential to mankind as that of agriculture; no 



