|
|
Michigan State Agricultural College BY PRESIDENT ABBOT
1861 REORGANIZATION OP THE COLLEGE CREATION OF A STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE
The Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Hon. J. M. Gregory first, and afterwards the board of education, recommended that a new board be created to have charge of the State Agricultural College. It had become the policy of the State to commit each of its institutions to a board of its own. as it has more recently, to have in the legislative houses a standing committee upon each.
There was besides considerable dissatisfaction with the cutting down of the course of study, and the displacing from it of literary studies. The old idea of the founders had been, to quote from an article in the Detroit Tribune, written by Mr. W. D. Cochrane, not long before his death: "The grand idea that self-sustaining labor can go hand in hand with mental culture and refinement of taste. " The feeling prevailed amongst farmers that in, their own institution their sons were to receive an education not inferior to that given in any college.
In December, 1859, after the adoption of Mr. Gregory's plan, the matter came up in the executive committee of the State Agricultural Society, and a committee was appointed to inquire into the condition of the college and to report in October. This committee, consisting of James Bayley of Troy, Dr. George K. Johnson of Grand Rapids, and Frederick Fowler of Hillsdale, reported that the objects of the college were: 1st. The explaining of the philosophy of agriculture, imparting a knowledge of the laws of nature that underlie the cultivation of the soil; and, 2d. Affording mental culture and discipline to enable the student to comprehend and reason about the laws.
Michigan State
Page 40
|
|
|
|
|
|