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THIRTEENTH BIENNIAL REPORT

OF THE

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

OF THE

Iowa State Agricultural College and Farm

MADE TO

THE GOVERNOR OF IOWA,

FOR THE YEARS 1888 AND 1889.

PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

DES MOINES:

G. H. RAGSDALE, STATE PRINTER.

1889.

STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE,
AMES, IOWA, December 1, 1889.

To his Excellency, WM. LARRABEE:

In accordance with the statute defining the duties of the Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the Iowa Agricultural College, I have the honor to transmit herewith the Thirteenth Biennial Report of said Board.

E. W. STANTON, Secretary.

REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT.

To the Honorable Board of Trustees of the Iowa Agricultural College:

GENTLEMEN-I am glad to be able to report substantial prosperity in the College during the period of three and a half years since I took charge as president, and especially during the two years properly covered by this report. In May, 1888, a brief disturbance occurred among the students, growing out of jealousies between college societies. It attracted far more attention at the time than its real importance deserved, soon passed out of mind here, and no vestige of ill will seems now to remain among the students. Never has there been in the College greater good will and good behavior, or more earnest work, than during the past year. And yet it seems to be a peculiarity of the human mind that a more unimportant, though unfortunate, episode will attract more public attention, and remain longer in the memory of those on the outside, than the beneficent daily work of a great institution for many years.

A MARKED EXAMPLE.

For example, Mr. Justice Miller, of the Supreme Court of the United States, a distinguished citizen and former resident of this State, in an illustrated article on Iowa in Harper's Monthly for July, 1889, has only this to say of the College and its twenty-one years of great usefulness: "The agricultural college, organized by the State five or six years ago (1), and supported by the sale (2) of land donated by the government, has not developed great capacity for instruction in agricultural labor (3) and science, either because no sufficient system of instruction has been devised (4), or because the intestine controversies among the trustees, presidents and professors (5) have retarded its growth and obstructed its usefulness." (6) The numbers inserted in parenthesis are for future refer

ence.

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