tire cost to the State for buildings, furniture, etc., during the 36 ears of its existence, is about $145,000.

As the main building now stands it is in the form of a rectangular oss, the length and breadth each being nearly 300 feet. At present e building in all its parts is fully used in the daily work of the school. here is room enough for the present attendance, but no more than the tual needs of the school require.

ADMINISTRATION.:

The State board of education, elected directly by the people, as shown a previous paragraph, have sole and complete authority to manage e affairs of the normal school, under certain general provisions of law, cording to their best discretion.

There is of course an indirect and wholesome restraint arising from e power of the legislature to give or to withhold necessary appropriaon; otherwise, they are untrammeled. The present board of educa on is constitued as follows:

Hon. Samuel S. Babcock, president, Detroit; term expires December , 1892.

Hon. Ferris S. Fitch, superintendent of public instruction, secretary, nsing; term expires December 31, 1896.

Hon. Perry F. Powers, treasurer, Cadillac; term expires December 1894.

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The chief function of this board is its charge of the normal school. ichigan has wisely chosen to maintain, thus far, but one normal hool, and at least to defer the establishment of others until the one s gained substantial strength and solidity.

PRESENT ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL.

Reference to a preceding table will show stages of the growth, as to mbers of students, which has thus far characterized the institution. e following list of its corps of officers, professors, and instructors ll also aid in giving a true idea of its present status:

JOHN M. B. SILL, M. A., principal.

Mental and Moral Science, and Theory and Art of Teaching.-Daniel Putnam, M. A., ce-principal.

History and Civil Government.-Julia A. King, M. A., preceptress; Annah May ule, assistant; Nellie M. Stirling, instructor.

Music and Director of Conservatory.-Frederic H. Pease.

Mathematics.-David E. Smith, Ph. M., Ph. D.; Wilbur P. Bowen, instructor; la M. Hayes, instructor; Ada B. Norton, instructor.

German and French Languages.-August Lodeman, M. A.; Annie A. Paton, assistant. Training School.-Austin George, M. A., director; William H. Brooks, critic in ammar grades; Nina C. Vandewalker, critic in primary grades; Mary Lockwood, ndergartner; Lillian Crawford, model primary.

Natural Sciences.—Lucy A. Osband, M. A.; Clarence D. McLouth, assistant.

Physical Sciences.-Edwin A. Strong, M. A.; Charles E. St. John, B. s., assistant; alter F. Lewis, assistant.

English Language and Literature.-Florus A. Barbour, B. A.; Lois A. McMahon, assistant; Abbie Pearce, assistant; Hiram W. Miller, assistant.

Drawing and Geography.-John Goodison.

Latin and Greek Languages.-Benjamin L. D'Ooge, M. A.; Helen B. Muir, assistant. Penmanship.-P. R. Cleary.

Librarian.-Florence Goodison.

Clerk.-Frances L. Stewart.

THE STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

By President O. CLUTE, Lansing, Michigan.

early as 1844 the friends of agriculture and of education in Michibegan to write and speak in favor of more thorough teaching in ublic schools of those sciences that bear on agriculture and of establishment of a school of agriculture. In the "Michigan her" for February, 1844, Jonathan Shearer ably advocates more ugh education of farmers. In the first annual address before the igan State Agricultural Society in Detroit, September 26, 1849, E. H. Lothrop spoke with point and force of the great need of thorough training in botany, chemistry, physiology, zoology, and anics, because of their direct bearing on agriculture, and he aled strongly to farmers to give their sons and daughters a better ation.

an address delivered at Marshall, before the Calhoun County cultural Society, September 20, 1849, Hon. Wm. M. Fenton, lieuat governor, argued at length in favor of education in the science practice of agriculture.

October 11, 1849, Joseph R. Williams, who a few years later me the first president of the State Agricultural College, gave a vigorous address before the Kalamazoo County Agricultural ty, at its fourth annual fair, in which he called on all farmers to ate themselves and their children.

om time to time these and other friends of an agricultural college the matter before the public by articles in the papers, by discusin the meetings of the State Agricultural Society and in other ings, by petitions to the legislature, and in other ways. In 1849 xecutive committee of the State Agricultural Society, at its annual ing in Jackson, December 19, adopted a resolution offered by Bela pard, requesting the legislature to establish an agricultural coland model farm:

Resolved, That our legislature be requested to take such legislation all appear necessary or expedient for the establishment of a State al agricultural office, with which shall be connected a museum of cultural products and implements and an agricultural library, and on as practicable an agricultural college and a model farm."

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Mr. Hubbard, Mr. Titus Dort, and Mr. J. C. Holmes were appointed a committee to memorialize the legislature on the subject, and in January, 1850, Mr. Hubbard, for the committee, memorialized the legislature in behalf of an agricultural college in an able paper, which is printed in the Transactions of the State Agricultural Society, 1850, pp. 53-58. By the efforts of this committee the legislature in 1850 passed a joint resolution calling on Congress for a gift to the State of 300,000 acres of land for the support of agricultural schools in Michigan. Thus was begun that agitation in Congress that led 12 years later to the passage of the Morrill bill, giving the States 30,000 acres of land for each Senator and Representative in Congress for the support of schools of agriculture and the mechanic arts, under which bill Michigan received 240,000 acres of land.

Mr. J. C. Holmes, mentioned above as member of the committee to memorialize the legislature in behalf of an agricultural college, had been chosen secretary of the State Agricultural Society, March 23, 1849. He was an educated gentleman, imbued with the modern spirit, an enthusiastic agriculturist, and a strong believer in agricultural education. He became at once a strong worker for an agricultural college, and for several years gave much time and effort to leading public thought towards such a school.

The second annual fair of the State Agricultural Society was held in Ann Arbor in 1850. Here, on September 26, Joseph R. Williams gave the annual address, in which he spoke eloquently and forcibly in behalf of special schools of agriculture.

On June 3, 1850, a convention for the revision of the State constitution met in Lansing. Some of the members of this convention were friends of agricultural education, and were not unfaithful to the cause in their convention work. On June 10 Mr. Samuel Clark, of Kalamazoo, moved the following:

Resolved, That the committee on education be instructed to inquire into the expediency of providing for the establishment of an agricultural school and model farm connected therewith.

The committee on education, having considered the matter, included in its report a mandatory provision for an agricultural school. It is found in Article XIII, section 11, of our present State constitution. A part of this section reads as follows:

The legislature shall encourage the promotion of intellectual, scientific, and agricultural improvement; and shall, as soon as practicable, provide for the establishment of an agricultural school.

Having secured a constitutional provision commanding the legisla ture to provide for an agricultural school, the friends of the enterprise directed their efforts to the legislature. A portion of these friends were workers in the State Agricultural Society; the secretary, J. C. Holmes being one of the most active and untiring. In 1852 he referred to the

ubject from Francis W. Shearman, superintendent of public inion, and from Dr. Tappan, president of the State University. A ittee was appointed to urge upon the legislature immediate acA memorial was presented to the legislature in 1853, but that took no action. Again in December, 1854, Mr. Holmes brought abject before the State Agricultural Society, and on motion of Justus Gage, it was

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ved, That a committee be appointed to draft a petition to the legislature prayit honorable body to take in consideration the propriety of approg a sum of money sufficient for the establishment of an agricultural school, e addition of an experimental farm, where experiments and theoretical agriwill be taught on a scale equal to our best colleges.

committee appointed to draft a petition in accordance with the resolution was Messrs. Justus Gage, John Starkweather, and S. rtlett. On the same day Mr. Gage offered the following:

ved, That an agricultural school should be connected with the Normal School lanti.

this resolution there was an able debate of some length. Mr. ett offered the following as a substitute for the motion of Mr. Gage: ved, That an agricultural college should be separate from any other institu

Gage withdrew his resolution and advocated the passage of this tute, which was adopted.

e, for the first time, came to a definite determination in the counthe State Agricultural Society a subject that had been much cond in public and private discussion. Many earnest and able friends agricultural school believed its interests would be furthered if re a department of an existing school. They had worked, and ued for some time longer to work for this end. But those who ed a separate school won a victory in the passage of this resoluThey still had much work to do before their aim was won, but the ge of this resolution was the beginning of the end. The spindling rtions of every agricultural school that has been made a departof another school shows that in thus working to establish the gan Agricultural College on an independent basis they builded

O days later Mr. Gage reported to the meeting a memorial to the ature, praying for an appropriation sufficient to purchase a body d suitable for an experimental farm and for the erection of suitbuildings for an agricultural school, placing it upon a basis of its separate from any other institution of learning, and for the enent of the same in such manner as shall place it upon an equality the best colleges of the State.

s memorial was adopted.

petition to the legislature was prepared by a committee appointed e purpose, asking for the establishment of an agricultural school