144 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 



notoriety but for the conquest of truth, and who, with more 

 thought for service than for salary, are anxious to aid in laying 

 broad and deep the foundations of human thought and activity. 

 For this reason, in the progress of agricultural knowledge, I 

 place the influence of the teaching institutions as the primary 

 factor, because, when there exists a body of men really possessed 

 by the research impulse and with adequate training, inquiry 

 will not wait on legislative authority and support, but will proceed 

 even under adverse circumstances. Whether the land-grant 

 colleges are to train such men sufficient in numbers and ability 

 to meet the demand is yet to be determined. So far these institu- 

 tions have appealed for public support, chiefly on the ground 

 of educating farmers, and have pointed to farmer graduates 

 and crowded short winter courses as a sure way of convincing 

 the popular mind that public funds are successfully appUed to 

 the supposedly chiefest aim of agricultural education and are 

 not being exhausted in the labyrinths of learning characterized 

 as useless. 



It is a serious question whether we are right in our educational 

 plans when we place almost the entire emphasis upon the 

 commercial or business side of agriculture and the industries, 

 or whether in doing this we are promoting the highest utiHty 

 of agricultural and industrial education. Is it not now 

 the privilege and duty of at least some of the colleges and 

 universities here represented more fully to nourish and 

 develop the spirit of inquiry? Should you not dehberately 

 set about recognizing and encouraging scientific initiative 

 among your students and organizing courses of instruction 

 that shall give a substantial preparation for the work of 

 investigation ? 



A New England college president, having in mind, doubtless, 

 the older institutions of learning, once expressed the half-formed 

 conviction that "the college is farther from the market-place than 

 is the church." It was evidently his thought that in the college, as 



