106 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 



ment of which the notable history of this institution forms a 

 part. 



It would be difficult to say just where and how systematic 

 instruction in the principles of agriculture took its rise in this 

 country. Such instruction was given in some sort in Moor's 

 Indian school, out of which Dartmouth College arose, back even 

 in colonial days. Benjamin Franklin proposed such instruction 

 for the academy at Philadelphia, the forerunner of the University 

 of Pennsylvania, but it does not appear that this part of his plan 

 was realized. In the 2o's and 3o's of the nineteenth century 

 great interest was excited in the so-called manual-labor schools. 

 It was proposed that a farm be attached to the schools, and that 

 those who were studying during a part of the day should engage 

 in ordinary farm labor during another part of the day. The 

 purpose, to be sure, was primarily to provide a way by which 

 students might "pay their way" through school. But there was 

 a thought, too, of instruction in the better methods of farming, 

 and at least a vague dream of something better yet, the vital 

 union of thought and manual toil. Some of the old-line colleges 

 showed at least good-will toward the scientific aspects of agri- 

 culture, Columbia even establishing a professorship under which 

 agriculture was ranged alongside of other sciences. Then just 

 at the middle of the century, the state of Michigan provided in 

 its constitution of 1850 for the establishment of an agricultural 

 school, and seven years later this institution, the first of its kind 

 and grade in the United States, was ready to enrol its first stu- 

 dents. Pennsylvania had already incorporated its Farmers' 

 High School, but it was preceded by two years in the actual 

 opening by this State Agricultural College of Michigan. A 

 little later in that same notable year, 1857, Justin S. Morrill of 

 Vermont first introduced his measure for the endowment of 

 agricultural and mechanical colleges in the several states by the 

 national government. 



What is especially worthy of note at this point is the fact that 



