MISCELLANEOUS 425 



and the conservation of energy, men of the study rather than the field, 

 and least of all men of the orchard and stock farm; and they knew noth- 

 ing of the practical application of chemistry to fertilization and the rais- 

 ing of crops and the composition of feed stuffs^, of physiology to stock- 

 breeding, and of geology and physics to the study of the soils. 



With a thorough knowledge of science and familiarity with practical 

 agriculture Professor Miles had an inclination to enter this field, and this 

 inclination was encouraged by President Abbot and some of the mem- 

 bers of the Board of Agriculture. He had filled the professorship of 

 zoology and animal physiology with complete success^, and had he con- 

 sulted his most cherished tastes alone he would have remained there, but 

 he gradually suffered himself to be called to another field. The duties of 

 "acting superintendent of the farm" were attached to his chair in 1864. 

 In 1865 he became professor of animal physiology and practical agri- 

 culture and superintendent of the farm; in 1869 he ceased to teach 

 physiology, and gave his whole time to the agricultural branch of his 

 work; and in 1875 the work of the superintendent of the farm was con- 

 signed to other hands, and he confined himself to the professorship proper 

 of practical agriculture. 



The farm and its appurtenances^ with fields cumbered with stumps and 

 undrained, with inadequate and poorly constructed buildings, with in- 

 ferior live stocky and everj^thing primitive, were in poor condition for 

 the teaching or the successful practice of agriculture. Professor Miles' 

 first business was to set these things in order. Year by year something 

 was done to remove evils or improve existing features in some of the 

 departments of the life and management of the premises, till the concern 

 in a certain measure approached the superintendent's ideal — as being a 

 laboratory for teaching agriculture, conducting experiments, and train- 

 ing men, rather than a money-making establishment. 



In this new field, Professor Kedzie says, Professor Miles was even 

 more popular than before with students, and created an enthusiasm 

 for operations and labors of the farm which had been regarded before 

 as a disagreeable drudgery. The students "were never happier than 

 when detailed for a day's work with Dr. Miles in laying out some difficult 

 ditch or surveying some field. One reason why he was so popular was 

 that he was not afraid of soiling his hands. His favorite uniform for 

 field work was a pair of brown overalls. The late Judge Tenney came to 

 a gang of students at work on a troublesome ditch and inquired where 

 he could find Dr. Miles. 'That man in overalls down in the quicksands 

 of the ditch is Dr. Miles'; the professor of practical agriculture was in 

 touch with the soil." ^ 



Prof. Byron D. Halsted, of the New Jersey Agricultural College Experi- 

 ment Station, who was an agricultural pupil of Dr. Miles in Lansing, 

 characterizes him as having been a full man who knew his subjects 

 deeply and fondly. "In those days I am safe in writing that he repre- 

 sented the forefront of advanced agriculture in America. He was in 

 close touch with such men as Lawes and Gilbert, Kothamstead, England, 

 the famous field-crop experimenters of the world, and as for his knowl- 

 edge of breeds of live stock and their origin, Miles' Stock-Breeding is a 

 classic work. Dr. Miles, in short, was a close student, a born investigator, 

 hating an error, but using it as a stepping stone toward truth. He did 

 American farming a lasting service, and his deeds live after him." 

 5i 



