438 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



In all ajjps and amonjx pvory people, the historv of institutions has 

 been niarUed by epoclis moulded by some sironj:; jxM'Soiialily, or inllu- 

 enced by the development of new conditions. The Michigan Agricul- 

 tural (\)llej;e, far from beinjij an exception, furnishes a most typical and 

 interesting; example of this truth. 



In j^eneral, there are three distinct periods in the history of our Alma 

 Mater, which may be desi<>nated, for lack of better terms, as the Abbot 

 period, the Willits period, and the period throujjjh which the institution 

 is now passing, which may be known to future alumni as the Snyder 

 period. 



The first of these, characterized at its start by woods and stump 

 fields, isolation and ])oor equipment, hard work and few tanoible results, 

 saw our agricultui-al course fully inaugui-ated, vindicated, and estab- 

 lished before the ])eo])le of Michigan. When, in 18S:*,, President Abbot 

 resigned the post which he had for twenty years filled with such honor 

 to himself and the College, the formative period of the College was well 

 passed. 



The- second period, marked by the establishment of our mechanical 

 course, largely through the energy and ])erseverance of President Wil- 

 lits, extended through the ]>residency of Doctor Clute, a p;'riod of ten 

 years. During this time the educational trend of the College deviated 

 decidedly from the original course contem])lated at its inception. A 

 few scattered quotations from President Abbot's exposition of the ob- 

 jects of the institution, found in the catalog of 1803, will make my mean- 

 ing plain. He says, ''The State Agricultural College pro])oses: 



''First, To im])art a knowledge of science, and its application to the 

 arts, especially those sciences which relate to a<;riculture and kindred 

 arts, such as chemistry, botany, zoology, and animal ]>hysiolojjy. 



"Second. To afford its students the privilege of daily manual labor. 



"Third, To prosecute exi)eriments for the promotion of agriculture. 



"Fourth, To furnish instruction in the military art. 



"Fifth, To afford the means of a general education to the farming 

 class." 



From the clearly stated propositions it api^ears that the only con- 

 stituency- which the College possessed or desired previous to the Willits'" 

 period, was the farming class. Strong as this class is and has always 

 been, it still furnishes but one source of patronage for the institution to 

 draw upon. Every business man knows that the surest income is that 

 which is derived from a variety of indei)endent sources; and this truth, 

 translated into educational terms, was adopted as the guiding principle 

 of the College when the mechanical course was inaugurat'^d. Recent 

 statistics how that the rural po])ulation of many sections of Michigan is 

 actually decreasing, wiiile that of the cities is increasing. This indicates, 

 among many other things not pertinent to our history, that there is a 

 growing industrial or mechanical class, while the class upon which 

 the College had heretofore placed its entire dependence for moral sup- 

 port is actually decreasing in numbers. Without stop])iug to analyze- 

 this situation farther, let it be said that that institution is the strongest 

 which anticipates the demand of the time; whose guiding spirits are in 

 touch with the i)eople from whom its support and patronage must come. 

 Nothing but the highest praise can therefore be given to our State 

 Board of Agriculture, who, before the present industrial conditions had 



