LEGISLATruR, I SENATE Doc 186, No. 5. No. 5.] MJORITY REPORT of the Committees on Agriculture and Public Instruction, on so much of the Governor's Message as relates to the Agricultural College. The committees on agriculture and public instruction, to whom was referred so much of the Governor's message as relates to the Agricultural College, have had the same under consideration, and a majority of said committees would respectfully make the following report: The introduction into the Constitution of Michigan of the provision that the Legislature should encourage the promotion of intellectual, scientific and agricultural improvement, and should, as soon as practicable, provide for the establishment of an agricultural school, was but the result of a long-felt conviction, in the minds of some earnest, thinking men, of the desirableness and necessity of a different and more practical course of education than the facilities of our literary colleges afforded; that the remark of the ancient philosopher, who, when asked, "what is most proper for boys to learn," replied, that which they will want to practice when they are men," was a wise one; and that the times in which we live, and the genius of the civil and political institutions of our country, demanded that labor, which only is degrading when coupled with vice o: ignorance, should be dignified by a more general association with high 2 SENATE Doc. intellectual culture. That such a provision should be incorporated into the organic law of our State, was but one of many indications that public sentiment upon the great and important subject of education had undergone somewhat of a change. For centuries had a thorough knowledge of the dead languages been considered indispensable to the establishment of any claim to high position in scholarship; and such an acquaintance with Latin and Greek, with little or no knowledge of those sciences more intimately related to the affairs and business of life, entitled its possessor to at once take honored rank among educated men. Not many years have elapsed since scientific departments did not exist in connection with any of our colleges; and even yet, those departments are treated as of minor importance, if existing at all, in many of our colleges. Mental culture alone, was considered the primary, and almost sole object of education. Hence, strong and persistent opposition was made to the introduction of any physical science, excepting, perhaps, such as was immediately connected with and dependent upon mathematics, into the college course of study. As an instance of such opposition, the great geologist of New England, President Hitchcock, met with the most persistent hostility against the introduction of that most important and interesting study, geology, into the college course of Amherst. And even now, in such Institutions as Harvard University, far greater prominence is given to the literary and higher mathematical, than to the scientific course. While our highest institutions of learning, both in this country and in Europe, and a large portion of those who have occupied the front rank among cultivated minds, have given what seems to us, undue prominence to the study of the classics, as a means of mental discipline, and to classical attainments as a passport to position, we are glad to know that to-day many whose names stand high before the world as men of scientific, as well as literary attainments, have publicly united in deprecating the necessity of all students spending their time in the study of the ancient languages. But it is in the minds of a No. 5. 3 portion of the more intelligent class engaged in the industrial pursuits, that the feeling of dissatisfaction in regard to the course of study required in our higher institutions of learning, has become the strongest and most wide spread. There are many who desire, and intend to be farmers and mechanics, who have no time to spend in going through a classical course; yet who do wish to pursue, under professional training, and in schools affording advantages equal to those enjoyed by students pursuing a classical course, such branches as chemistry and mechanics, natural history and political philosophy. Intelligent farmers, while conscious that their occupation lay at the foundation of national wealth, have long been aware of another fact, that the wonderful inventive genius of the age was doing far less for their occupation, than for almost any other of the industrial pursuits. That while improved machinery had been constantly and rapidly developing for, and aiding other employments in the highway to wealth, it had added but very slowly to their means of controlling the forces of natur e and in drawing forth from the hidden resources larger rewards, with less toil of the hands. The improvements that have been made in the machinery employed in connection with agriculture, and the aid rendered by the discoveries of chemistry, have but served to awaken inquiry, and arouse thinking minds to the necessity of calling to the aid of their occupation, a more general diffusion of thorough scientific education. No industrial pursuit is more dignified or noble. None furnishes a wider field for the exercise of the powers of a cultivated mind, or promises for such exercise a richer return, both of intellectual pleasure and pecuniary profit. While we would not detract one iota from the importance of any, or all the other literary and scientific institutions which are justly the pride of our State and the glory of our times, but would only wish that they were more numerous and their means of usefulness extended, yet your committee feel that they but give utterence to a conviction that has become deep 4 SEiTNE Doc. seated and wide-spread among intelligent and thinking minds, when they say, that the time has come when institutions directly adapted to the object sought, should be established and sustained, with advantages second to none others, where all those sciences, more or less intimately connected with agriculture and the mechanic arts, should be taught in connection with manual labor; thus adding a dignity to labor, and retaining a love of the same, instead of, as is the case with the course of study pursued in our literary institutions, creating a disrelish for industrial employments, which leads our educated young men, simply because educated, to devote themselves to already over-crowded professions. By such means, and such only, in the estimation of your committee, can the occupations of agriculture and mechanic arts be raised to honored rank, not only among other industrial pursuits, but along side the learned professions. Not that the number who shall take advantage of the facilities afforded by an institution of this kind, for obtaining a thorough scientific education, will at once be large-the prejudice against scientific farming has been too wide-spread among farmers themselves, for us to expect such a result. But, be the number few or many, scattered abroad as they necessarily will be, their influence will be most powerful in developing a different sentiment than that which has so long prevailed among the masses of those engaged in this occupation. Even already has there been a very great change in the minds of reading and thinking men in favor of industrial schools, and the Agricultural College of Michigan, the first established in our country, not only occupies the front rank in the estimation of eminent agriculturists abroad, but has won largely the confidence of the intelligent farmers of our own State. In this great enterprise Michigan has taken the lead, and all the other States who have or would establish similar institutions, are looking to her for a model. This institution has succeeded as no other manual labor school ever has, which we believe is to be principally attributed to the fact, that its plan successfully combines labor and study. No. 5. 5 In other manual labor schools, while the students have been taught by learned professors in the class room, he has labored in the field under the direction of uneducated, though perhaps practical superintendents. All such schools have proved failures. But here the professor accompanies the students to the field, the orchard, horticultural and botanical gardens, and the stock yards; lectures there and makes their labor a practical and interesting illustration of the sciences taught in the school room. A three-fold object is taught by this institution: 1st. To impart a good scientific education. 2d. To make the acquiring of that education, on the part of the student, so disciplinary that he should leave the institution a really educated man, competent to draw clear and definite distinctions, ready and accurate in judgment; and 3d. To retain in the mind of the student such a taste for manual labor, that either his actual pursuits on leaving, or at least his hearty sympathies and influence should be on the side of those engaged in the industrial pursuits of life. In each of these respects the institution has thus far been successful. Not only has it overcome, to a considerable extent, the prejudice with which it had at first to contend, but has won, within the past few years, many well-deserved commendations. Gov. Blair, in his last message, and Gov. Crapo, in both of his messages, speak in terms of approbation of the College; especially in the portion of the last message of the Governor which has been referred to your committees, is it strongly urged that a liberal appropriation be made, both for the support &J the College for the next two years, and also for furnishing additional accommodations for students. The agricultural press, with scarcely an exception, unite in declaring it the most successful agricultural college in the country. It has been visited by eminent agriculturists of other States, as well as our own, and always commended by them. Should not the State, at this time then, do whatever may be Q~6~~~~~ SENATS DOc. necessary to maintain its present standing, and to make sure.its most complete success? Three things are requisite to the greatest usefulness of the'College-students, competent instructors, and means of illustration and study. Bring these three things together and you.have the elements of a college. Students there are, until there is no longer accommodations for them, and additional dormitories and dining-halls are required, if its increased usefulness and success are to be promoted. It has a corps of professors quite competent to their duties, so far as their professorships extend, some of them being graduates of the College. Entomology, agricultural chemistry, botany, breeding of animals, practical agriculture, landscape gardening, meterology -and other branches are taught in a manner and to an extent that they are not in any other college. To make the College what it should be, and what its friends hope yet to see it become, there should be a professor of each prominent physical science, and of veterinary, each of whom should give his entire time to the advancement of his own branch of study; thus securing in each a full mastery of his professorship, and giving to the Institution that eminent ability in its professors which is the surest means of success. Your committee hope yet to see, in the not very distant fLture, not only its corps of Professors enlarged, but to see it enjoying all other facilities required to enable it to take honored rank along side the highest literary and scientific colleges of our land. Meanwhile, let the State maintain the College by appropriations sufficient to meet its present wants and growing necessities, and the Congressional endowment of 240,000 acres of land, which is now being selected, and will before long be -put into the market, will some tirie lake the Istitution what we shall be proud to have it be. That endowmenlt, magnificent though it is, will not be too large for the proper development of,ib.e College, i.tio an Agricultural College, a Military School and No. 5. 7 a Polytechnic Institute, according to the original design of its founders. That grant should be carefully guarded from any sacrifice through a false economy on the part of the State. In the opinion of your committee, there should be the sum of $20,000 appropriated to build sufficient dormitory accommodations for students; and the further sum of $40,000 to carry the College successfully along for the next two years. It has a debt of about $2,500. The salaries are higher, and necessarily so, than they were when the estimates were made, two years ago, though still below those paid at the University, or at most other colleges. Two of the Instructors have been made Professors, as they both richly deserved. The Professors receive $1,250 a year, which is a small sum, as compared with that paid to Professors in similar Institutions, in other States, or even with the amount paid to teachers in some of our union schools. Two years ago the Professors were paid but $1,000 a year. The estimate provides for one additional man, as a superintendent of the farm, in the place of the present professor of zoology and animal physiology and agriculture, who took the superintendence of the farm in addition to the duties of his professorship, but who finds the double labor too severe to be performed by.one man. It has also become necessary to employ one assistant teacher in chemistry, at a salary of $600 a year. We find more labor as teachers is required of the professors in this institution, than is usually required of instructors in similar schools. Objection has been raised to the Agricultural College, that it is a great outlay of money, and that a large number of professors are sustained for so small a number of students. This, in the minds of your committee, is a very unfair way of measuring the utility of an institution of this kind; especially is this unfair towards a young institution, which must commence with 8 SENATE Doc. a competent corps of teachers in order to draw any students. But in this regard, the Agricultural College can compare very favorably with the leading literary and scientific colleges of the country. Counting in all the instructors and the assistant chemist, and leaving out the secretary, who does not have classes, and who draws but $500 of his salary from the College, the Agricultural College has fifteen students to each professor; and this number might have been much larger had there been accommodations for those who have applied for admission, but have been rejected for want of rooms for the students. Very few of the colleges of our country have a larger number of students to each professor, and many not as large. Even our noble University, of which we may so justly be proud, has not until very recently, (exclusive of her law and medical students,) reached a larger average. For a full statement of the facts in this regard, your committee would refer to a table compiled in 1863, and to be found on page 151, of the Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Agriculture just published. Heretofore one of the objections urged against the Agricultural College, has been that very few, even of farmers themselves, wished to patronize the school. This objection no longer exists. During the past year, while with the same corps of Professors a much larger number of students might have received instruction, the College has not been able for want of rooms, to receive more than about two-thirds of those who have applied for admission. And without doubt many more would have applied, had not the fact been very generally made known that the College was full to its utmost capacity for accommodations. There is at the present time, counting in those students of the past year who wish to continue their attendence, two hundred applications for admission in the hands of the President of the College, being more than twice the number that can possibly be accommodated without additional room. And appli No.,. 9 cations are still constantly being received, a fact which, to the minds of your committee, is conclusive evidence that the institution is fast gaining the confidence of the public'mind, and that an agricultural college may no longer justly be styled an experiment. It is often asked wey there should be so large an item in the estimates for labor on the farm, and why the results of such labor cannot pay for the same, even if it yields no profits. To this we would reply that, as far as the labor of students is concerned, in the very nature of the Institution, it is not designed, and should not be expected, to be remunerative to the College. A portion of that labor is educational-a practical application of the principles of science as taught in the school. And a still larger portion is expended in permanent improvements upon the farm, such as clearing the land, extracting the stumps, fencing and under-draining; also, in taking care of the orchard, the nursery, College and farm buildings, library, Secretary's office, mail, etc., none of which is expected to bring immediate income. For full particulars of the outlay of students' labor, the committees would refer to the report of the farm superintendent, and to the account of the professor having charge of the horticultural department. The same is true, to a considerable extent, of the labor of hired men, as must be apparent when we recollect that the College was located, (perhaps unwisely) in a wilderness, with scarcely an acre of improvement; and that in 1858, there was, as shown by the report of the College, but sixty acres cleared, and on much of that the stumps were still remaining. Now there are three hundred acres cleared and fenced, and much of it under-drained, and entirely free from stumps. Orchards of apple and pear trees are set out, a fruit garden in prosperous growth, nurseries established, the lawns and borders beautified, and walks established. All this has been done by the students and others, and the State has paid for it. And they were all necessary and indis2 10 SENATE Doc. pensable improvements, though not yielding immediate returns like the production of crops. Considerable labor has been, and it is the opinion of your committees that more should be expended in experimenting, although such labor may not bring immediate profits. Crops have been, and still should be of minor consideration. The first work is one of preparation. People are impatient to have this preparatory work finished, and to see a sufficient amount of these lands put in suitable condition for carrying out the idea of an experimental farm. But that this work has been steadily going on is as certain as that the College is not in a wilderness to-day. The income of the farm, however, is getting to be something of an item; and must now, under good and efficient macnagement, rapidly increase. But that income should for a long time yet be expended in improving the farm, instead of going to assist in supporting the school. The question is often asked: is the College successful? Your committees are of the opinion that as great a degree of success has attended it, as under the circumstances could reasonably have been expected, being the first institution of the kind in our country, and having been, in many respects, an experiment; and without the advantages of the example and experience of any time-honored institution of the same or a similar character. The building up and sustaining of any of our institutions of learning, involves a large outlay of money; even those that are organized upon the simpler plan of giving class instruction only. We could not reasonably expect this to be less so, organized upon a more complex plan, with all the various kinds of farm stock to obtain and care for, departments of labor to organize, a farm, gardens and orchards to prepare for illustration and instruction, and at the same time providing, and successfully uniting with the labor on the farm, the advantages of a thorough scientific education. No. 5. 11 Your committees believe that its funds are not wasted. Its affairs have been repeatedly examined by committees of agriculture and education, and its management always found to be economical. Such we believe to be the fact at the present time, and in the ability and judgment of the present State Board of Agriculture, who have the control of its afiiairs, and in its efficient corps of Professors, we have the utmost confidence. Your committees agree with the opinion often expressed by many able minds who have given attention to the subject of agricultural education, that labor and study must be united, and that pursuing the same scientific course without such connection with labor, would educate students not for, but out of the indastrial pursuits of life. At our Agricultural College this problem of uniting labor with study, is succeeding as it never has elsewhere. It is there growing into system, and becoming more satisfactory every year. Prejudice against it is rapidly giving place to confidence, and its friends are looking forvard with strong expectations of seeing this, and similar institutions in our land, become the most important allies of the great interests of practical agriculture. The growing conviction of the age, that led to the establishment of this and similar institutions, is by no means prepared to decide themfailures. Still less is it prepared, because mistakes in management, perchance, have been made, or opposition incurred, to relinquish itspurpose to carry forward and perfect this system of practical.scientificleducation. Neither do we believe that Michigan, by any failure to provide adequate means, will allow any sister State to take the lead in this great enterprise. We believe it to be for the pecuniary as well as educational interests of our State, to sustain and carry forward the Agricultural College, and if in any respects it is not what it should be, make it so; and that, in the advantages that shall result therefrom, both to labor and science, it will yet repay, and more than repay, for every dollar that shall have been expended in thelenterprise. The College has attained a reputation 12 SEN'ATE Doc. within a few years past, that would make those acquainted with it wonder at any crippling of its efforts now. The late President of the Massachusetts Agricultural College visited this College in 1865, and published as follows in the " Massachusetts Plowman," of July 1st, 1865: "Among the special objects of my tour was the Michigan Agricultural College, of which I will venture to say something, as it is one of the very few of such institutions at present flourishing in this country. I have carefully watched the progress of this Institution, and read all its published statements from the beginning, and I have no hesitation in saying that it has made far more progress than its modest officers have claimed, and that the State ought thus far to be well satisfied with the experiment. The great problem of uniting labor and study is being very successfully solved at this Institution." Also, the same well-known writer, in an article on "Agricultural Colleges," in the lately issued report of the U. S. Commissioner of Agriculture, speaks in high terms of the College, and under different headings advocates all its leading methods. Very many of the leading agricultural papers of the country have commented on the present condition of the College, commending its plans and rejoicing in its success. The State Agricultural Society, at its late session in Detroit, says: "The Agricultural College is now giving substantial evidence of its progress towards a realization of what was c*atemplated in its original creation, under the provision of our constitution. And we regard it as one of the instrumentalities that is now placing the science of practical agriculture in the same honorable position that the University is conferring upon the law and medicine, and our Normal School on the profession of teaching." Your committes have carefully examined the estimates made by the State Board of Agriculture, of the appropriations necessary to carry on the College successfully for the years 1867-8, which amount to $44,318 16, and we fail to find. any item that, in our judgment, is unnecessary, or that can be judiciously lowered. But hoping that the increasing income from the farm No. 5. 13 and stock, above what in the said estimates is allowed, may make up the $4,318 16, we herewith report a bill, making an.appropriation of $40,000 for the support of the State Agricultural College, and to pay the expenses of the State Board of Agriculture for the years 1867 and 1868. Also, a bill making an appropriation of $20,000 to build additional domitory accommodations at the State Agricultural College. And we would recommend that the bills do pass, and ask to be discharged from the further consideration of the subject. J. WEBSTER CHILDS, Chairman of Committee on Agriculture. W. B. WILLIAMS, Chairman of Committee on Public Instruction.