SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 45 



bill" ? However, if Michigan made the suggestion, we honor 

 Senator Morrill for carrying it to a successful result. 



In 1852 both the Normal School and the University an- 

 nounced to the society that each had arranged for a course of 

 lectures on agriculture and were ready to carry out the wishes 

 of the society relative to an agricultural school, which should 

 be a department of these institutions. 



In January, 1853, the society sent a committee of its members 

 to visit these institutions and learn their facilities for teaching 

 agriculture. They came back and reported hearing some fine 

 lectures, but, said the committee, "we do not think the infor- 

 mation to be derived from these sources is sufficient to constitute 

 the education of a professional and practical farmer," and 

 recommended the purchase of a farm "where practical and 

 scientific education shall be taught, and that it be not connected 

 with any other educational institutions." 



The society kept resolving to the legislature until in 1855, 

 by an act approved February 12, the president and executive 

 committee of the Michigan State Agricultural Society were 

 authorized to select a location and site of not less than five hun- 

 dred acres, within ten miles of Lansing, for a state agricultural 

 school, and in June of that year they came over and selected 

 this spot. 



Do you think the men who gave such earnest work toward 

 the establishment of an agricultural school would not stand 

 by it in after-years ? They supported the College in its forma- 

 tive period, when it needed friends, with the same zeal and 

 energy used in promoting its organization, and for years held 

 its summer meetings at the College. 



In many cases the same men have served at the same time 

 on the Board of Agriculture and on the Executive Committee of 

 the Society. 



The Agricultural Society appreciates the friendship and co- 

 operation of the College. No shade of jealousy has ever crept 



