10 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



gram, the workers from the college not being expected to give a course of 

 lectures but simply to do half the work and bear their share in the dis- 

 cussions. They were called from the first ''Farmers' Institutes," never 

 College Institutes. . Dr. Kedzie has been given the credit for founding 

 the Farmers' Institutes in Michigan, as it was on his invitation that the 

 work was entered upon. 



Chemistry being such a practical science and so far-reaching in its 

 applications, the range of topics discussed during the twenty-five years 

 of his connection with the institutes is greater than that of any other 

 worker. 



The first topic discussed by Dr. Kedzie at an institute (Allegan, Jan. 

 11-12, 1876) was "Swamp Muck." This was followed at other institutes 

 by papers on Lightning Rods, Land Plaster, Green Manuring, Illuminat- 

 ing Oil, Healthy Homes for Farmers, Relative Value of Different Varie- 

 ties of Michigan Wheat, Agricultural Capabilities of the Boils of the 

 Northern Counties of the Lower Peninsula, Comparative Food Value of 

 Certain Varieties of Indian Corn and Millstuffs, Salt in Agriculture, 

 Food Value of Yellowed and Sound Peaches, Relations of Chemistry to 

 Agriculture, Ripening of Wheat, Source of Nitrogen for Plants, Manures 

 for the Farm, Rotation of Crops, Agricultural Problem of the Plains. A 

 Word About Water, Sugar from Beets, Methods of Testing Wheat Flour, 

 Wheats for Michigan, Rainfall and Frost in the Fruit Belt, Simpler 

 Chemistry of the Farm, Feeding the Soil, Relation of the Factory to the 

 Farm in the Beet Sugar Industry, The Soil from the Chemist's Stand- 

 point. 



In the choice of topics for his talks Dr. Kedzie aimed to select those 

 subjects which would develop the most discussion and involve practical 

 questions. The address which was the most of a popular character was 

 that upon "Healthy Homes for Farmers." A ten years' experience in 

 Eaton county had made the doctor familiar with the unsanitary condi- 

 tions which surrounded many farmers' homes and his clear and witty 

 explanations of the "many mysterious visitations of Providence." the 

 cause traceable to improper locations of wells, barns and outhouses, left 

 a strong impression upon his hearers. 



At one institute the doctor was asked "just when is the best time to cut 

 wheat?" A very plain, simple question, but to answer it from actual 

 knowledge of facts required Dr. Kedzie and the workers in the chemical 

 laboratory to analyze twenty-one samples of wheat cut from the same 

 field, each sample taken twenty-four hours later than the preceding one. 



If space permitted I could enumerate many other simple ( ?) questions 

 propounded at the institutes which involved ah equal amount of work 

 and investigation to answer. The influence, therefore, of the institutes on 

 Dr. Kedzie's life and work as a scientist was fully as great as that which 

 he brought to bear upon the numerous farmers whom he met face to face 

 in the institute audiences throughout Michigan. 



In all the fields of endeavor in which he labored so long and earnestly 

 none loved he more than that of the Farmers' Institutes, and of the honors 

 and titles which were conferred upon him by the institutions of this 

 State, no honor prized he so highly as being called "the founder of the 

 Michigan Farmers' Institutes." 



