90 THE PORTRAIT GALLERY 
A CONSTRUCTIVE AGRICULTURAL THINKER 
29. Among the sturdy apostles of a new American agriculture 
that flocked so abundantly from the halls of the little Michigan 
Agricultural College in the 80’s was Dean Eucene Davenport. 
Born at Woodland, Michigan, June 20, 1856, he grew to young 
manhood on a Michigan farm. Of sternest stuff, he earned his 
own way through the agricultural college, receiving the degrees 
of Bachelor of Science in 1878, Master of Science in 1884, and 
Master of Agriculture in 1885. During these years he had 
taught both public and private schools, and interspersed his 
teaching seasons with vigorous wrestling with soil and crop on 
the home farm. The exigencies of his early career grounded 
his viewpoint firmly upon the soil, and he has never failed in 
after years to hold to that as fundamental. The social and 
economic problems of the rural community have always been 
the ones next to his heart. From 1889 to 1891, he was professor 
of agriculture at the Michigan college, but in the summer of 
that year was called to found and organize a government school 
at Sao Paulo, Brazil. The record he had established at his 
own Alma Mater of successfully measuring himself against odds 
and difficulties was continued in Brazil, but the effort proved 
premature on the part of this South American government. He 
consequently returned to America, but proceeding by way of 
England, made a thorough study of the English methods of 
agricultural education and the English practices of husbandry. 
He was particularly impressed by the fertility maintenance 
experiments of Lawes and GILBERT at Rothamstead, just out of 
London, and he returned to college work with a broadened out- 
look and a new enthusiasm. 
In January, 1895, he became dean and director of agriculture 
at the University of Illinois, a position he has held ever since. 
Under his supervision the Illinois college has grown to be one 
of the largest in the matter of equipment, faculty and attend- 
