EDUCATIONAL ENTERPRISES 361 



rested with the State Board of Education^ which also 

 administered the State normal school; but in 1861, 

 a separate board, that of agriculture, was created to 

 have charge of the Agricultural College. The fol- 

 lowing year (1862) the College became the bene- 

 ficiary of a grant by the United States of 240,000 

 acres of land in its aid, under the "Morrill Act," and 

 at the same time had its curriculum somewhat de- 

 fined, particularly as regards instruction in engineer- 

 ing as well as agriculture, as a condition of receiv- 

 ing this contribution to its resources. 



In 1875 the College faculty undertook extension 

 work among the farmers of the State through in- 

 stitutes in which addresses by experts from the staff 

 were supplemented by discussions by the attending 

 farmers themselves. This procedure associated scien- 

 tific knowledge with practical wisdom, and was de- 

 signed to promote a good understanding between the 

 Agricultural College and the farmers.^ 



In 1885 the legislature made provision for the pub- 

 lication through bulletins and press notices of in- 

 formation arising as the result "'of experiments made 

 in any of the different departments of the agricultu- 

 ral college, and such other information that they may 

 deem of sufficient importance to require it to come 

 to the immediate knowledge of the farmers and hor- 

 ticulturists of the state." Hundreds of bulletins have 

 been issued by the College in accordance with this 



*0n tho oarlv liisiory of the l\Iich. Afjr. Coll.. soo R. C. 

 Kedzie in "Alich. Pioneer & Hist. Soc. Collections," XXIX, 

 554 and Pres. T. C. Abbot, Ibid., VI, 115. 



