78 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



KEPORT OF FARM HOME READING CIRCLE. 



SEASON OF 1897-98. 



Pkes. J. L. Snyder, Michigan Agricultural College: 



Dear Sir — I herewith transmit a report of the Farm Home Reading 

 Circle, as conducted by its secretary under the direction of the State 

 Board of Agriculture, for the year ending June 30, 1898 



During the past year seventy new names have been added to the 

 roll of members, as against sixty-five during the year ending June 30, 

 1897. Among these seventy new members, who sent in their ages along 

 with their applications for membership, two were over sixty years of age, 

 four between fifty and sixty, seven between forty and fifty, eleven be- 

 tween thirty and forty, nine between twenty and thirty, and eight be- 

 tween the ages of fifteen and twenty. 



Since our last report two have finished the Farm Home Reading Circle 

 courses, and have been granted diplomas: F. C. Bulman, Esq., Toronto, 

 Ontario, Canada, and Mr. Frank D. Wells, of Rochester Mich. 



With your permission, I take the liberty of including a letter in full 

 as it came to me from Mr. Bulman : 



Toronto, June 1, 1898. 

 Herbert W. Mumford: 



Dear Sir — I enclose you ten sheets of foolscap paper, answers to ques- 

 tions on Henderson's Practical Floriculture. I also return questions by 

 your request. This is my last paper completing the three classes, or 

 fifteen examinations, in all three years' work. And if this last examina- 

 tion proves satisfactory entitles me to a suitable diploma for the same. 



I can only speak in the highest terms of the gentlemanly and prompt 

 business-like habits that so characterize all the transactions connected 

 with your College. 



The rising generations will be a living monument in the near future to 

 the practicability of such a work as the Michigan Agricultural Farm 

 Home Reading Circle is now carrying on, drilling into the students the 

 why and how science should be practically aplied to the farm. 



I am, yours greatly obliged, 



F. C. BULMAN, 

 Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 



We are very sure that those interested in the success of the Farm 

 Home Reading Circle will be interested in the above letter. 



Out of the sixty-five members, forty started the course with Book I, 

 Class 1, First Principles of Agriculture. 



It is difficult to measure the benefit which comes indirectly from one 



