42 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 



as the College. The object as stated in the first constitution 

 was "to promote the improvement of agriculture and its kindred 

 arts throughout the State of Michigan." It made it the duty of 

 its Board of Managers "to annually regulate and award prem- 

 iums on such articles, productions, and improvements as they 

 may deem best calculated to promote the agricultural, house- 

 hold, and manufacturing interest of the state, having special 

 reference to the most economical or profitable mode of compe- 

 tition in raising the crop or stock or in the fabrication of the 

 article offered." It was directed " to publish a report embracing 

 such statements of experiments, cultivation, and improvements, 

 proceedings, correspondence, statistics, and other matters, 

 the publication of which will exhibit the condition of the agri- 

 cultural interests of Michigan, and a diffused knowledge of 

 which will in the judgment of the Board add to the productive- 

 ness of agricultural and household labor, and therefore promote 

 the general prosperity of the state." 



Was not this a grand work for a society of mutual organiza- 

 tion to take up, with no possible hope for pecuniary reward, 

 and thus to continue for now fifty-eight years? Shall we not 

 call these men patriots ? 



While the State Agricultural Society may be called an elder 

 brother (or sister) to this College, it is to a great extent its 

 parent. 



Hon. E. H. Lothrop, in a public address at the first fair, 

 September 26, 1849, sounded the first note for an agricultural 

 school. 



Here is his plea for agriculture in the common schools, a 

 pleading we have been more than fifty years in answering: 



As four-fifths of the children of our state are intended for, and probably 

 will pursue agriculture as a profession, and as a means of livelihood, then 

 I say, make our common schools what they should be, and let the branches 

 there taught have a direct reference and bearing upon the future business 

 of our children. Make our common schools the nursery of farmers. 



