424 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Art— Prof. A. H. Griffith. 

 Needlework — to be appointed. 

 Horticulture— Prof. L. R. Taft. 

 Educational — Mr. Geo. B. Horton. 

 Mineral— Mr. W. J. Galbraith. 

 Marshal and Supt. of Police — Mr. A. J. Peek. 

 Forage— Mr. Wm. Dawson. 

 Transportation — D. R. Hurst. 



Business Committee (elected) — Mr. A. J. Doherty, Mr. L. W. Snell, Mr. 

 I. H. Butterfield. 



On motion, adjourned sine die. 



REPORT OF THE MICHIGAN STATE ASSOCIATION OF FARMERS' 

 CLUBS FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1907. 



The annual meeting of 1906 was of its usual interest. 101 delegates were 

 present, representing 77 clubs; 103 active clubs returned the yearly report 

 blanks, giving a total membership for Nov. 1, 1906 — 9006. A revised list 

 of clubs June 1, 1907, shows 137 clubs in the state, 90 of which are members 

 of the State Association, 



Mr. J. T. Daniells, of St. Johns, ex-president of the Association and mem- 

 ber of the Essex Farmers' Club, suggested that the Association have a motto 

 and sentiment as follows: 



Associational Motto — The skillful hand, with cultured mind, is the farm- 

 er's most valuable asset. 



Associational Sentiment — The farmer: He garners from the soil the 

 primal wealth of nations. 



These were officially adopted. 



Many of the clubs are having special features for their program — Young 

 People's Day, Woman's Day, the annual picnic and the club fair. The 

 last mentioned making the most practical program of the year. 



Concerning the growth of the club movement Pres. L. Whitney Watkins 

 in his address said: 



The first individual farmers' clubs were the result of a need of better 

 understanding among rural neighbors of conditions affecting their farms. 

 They were the intelligent outgrowth of necessity; the meeting of kindred 

 interests to talk things over-^ They preceded by many years the agricultural 

 extension work of the Agricultural College, through the medium of the 

 farmers' institutes and farm home reading circle. In fact it was coincident 

 with the rapid spread of the clubs throughout the State that the demand 

 for a more thorough knowledge of their vocation, by the better class of 

 farmers, started the college on its present era of advancement and influence. 



When the most progressive farmers of the Ingham County* Farmers' Club 

 met and organized in January, 1872, followed a little later by the Southern 

 Washtenaw, the result was far in advance, in importance, of anj- similar 

 movement in the interest of the rural communities. It was a movement 

 born of pure interest in their homes and farms, and at first included nothing, 

 practically, in the way of entertainment. The men simply met as repre- 

 sentatives of invested capital and energy to devise better means for success- 



