Michigan Education Mar. 2014 | Page 8

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As University of Michigan grew and Michigan State Normal School was being established, Farmers began to become antsy and the demand for an Agriculture college heightened. It can be argued that Ohio had already had one, but it was dismantled soon after its 1833 founding. In 1849, the State Agriculture Society pushed for something to be done for the Farmers of the state and around the country. The 1850 Michigan State Constitution stated that there was to be funds that was to establish an agriculture program as part of The University of Michigan (Dunbar). This wouldn’t have been an issue if the farmers didn’t protest for their own separate college. At the same time, Michigan State Normal College was also in the running to have the agriculture school as an addition to their college, after all, twenty two sections of land was up for grabs. Both schools arranged lectures on how they would teach it, but what was really needed was farm land for experimental and demonstrational work. It was finally recommended that a separate agriculture school would be formed.