SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 177 



public expense to distribute it to the farmers of the state. A 

 year later, he again called the attention of the legislature to this 

 subject, saying: 



The agricultural interest is one of great importance and claims with 

 justice the protection of the government, and yet it has received less aid 

 from direct legislation, than any other department of industry. But I feel 

 that when it is recollected how essentially the real prosperity of Michigan 

 depends upon the cultivation of her soil and the labor of her husbandmen, 

 the subject will receive your earnest consideration and favorable action. 



From the widespread interest at this time, and the activity 

 of influential men throughout the state, and particularly at 

 Detroit, I believe the feehng is warranted that but for the specu- 

 lation and "wild-cat money" resulting in the panic of 1837, 

 Michigan would have had an agricultural school or college start- 

 ing with the new state. Probably because of the disorganizing 

 and depressing influences following the panic, little was said or 

 done for some years; at least I have found little of public record, 

 although the need of better educational faciHties for the farmer 

 continued to be a feature of the address at state and county fairs 

 and in articles written for the press, and the interest was kept 

 alive. 



In March, 1849, while the legislature was in session, some 

 sixty members issued a call for a meeting to organize an agri- 

 cultural society. An act to incorporate was approved on April 2. 

 Most of those who had been active in promoting the agricul- 

 tural interests and education of the state, with others, became 

 members and organized the State Agricultural Society. 



Governor Ransom was elected president and J. C. Holmes, 

 who had persistently worked for its organization, was naturally 

 chosen secretary. It held a fair at Detroit in the fall of that 

 year, and E. H. Lothrop, a farmer living at Galesburg, delivered 

 the address. I will quote only a single paragraph of the many 

 good things he had to say: 



While our people and our government, both state and national, are 

 truly liberal^and pour out their money like water in the establishment of 



