{"id":4884,"date":"2025-06-14T02:48:21","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T02:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/?p=4884"},"modified":"2026-04-12T18:30:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T18:30:59","slug":"arthur-crozier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/arthur-crozier\/","title":{"rendered":"Arthur A. Crozier \u2014 M.A.C.’s forgotten forester"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A
A group of instructors and assistants in 1896\u2014some with familiar names, others long forgotten. Arthur Crozier is likely among them, but it’s unclear since the photo is labeled only as “Sub-Faculty” in the Heliostat<\/em> yearbook (1896), p. 34.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Arthur Alger Crozier (1856\u20131899, M.A.C. ’79) was with the Michigan Agricultural College Experiment Station<\/a> for a mere four years, but his influence on scientific agriculture was widespread and deep. And although it is not readily recognized today, more than 125 years after his death, his legacy remains visible in a lasting, physical form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crozier was born at Hudsonville in Ottawa County, the second of eleven children of Rev. Owen R. L. Crozier, a Millerite preacher of some renown, and Maria P. (Alger) Crozier. Arthur graduated in the M.A.C. Class of 1879 and was a charter member of the Union Literary Society<\/a>. He later took an M.S. degree in botany from the University at Ann Arbor, and held positions as a botanist at both the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. (1887\u201388) and the Iowa Experiment Station (1888\u201389). During this time he also served as the Secretary of the American Pomological Society (1887\u201391), and was the Pomological Editor of Funk & Wagnalls’ Standard Dictionary of the English Language<\/em>, first published in 1893.1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crozier joined the staff of the M.A.C. Experiment Station on March 15, 1894, as Assistant in Agriculture. His experiments and publications ran the gamut of scientific agriculture, with topics including raspberry cultivation, forage crops, potato rot, cereal grains, and hybrid corn. Along with Professor H. W. Mumford<\/a>, he published Farm Rules<\/em>, “a neat vest-pocket store of information for farmers. It contains valuable hints for stock, fruit, and grain raisers; tells how to get rid of various pests; gives rules for filling silos; and is worth its price\u2014ten cents\u2014for the other information it contains.”2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the winter of 1896\u201397, he was one of several professors and instructors who conducted a series of farmers’ institutes throughout the state, sharing the latest College research and, in their words, striving to “keep in touch with the lives and experiences of practical farmers [and] become acquainted with the thought of the people.” Crozier visited Harrisville, Allegan, Alpena, Coldwater, Albion, St. Louis, Tawas City, Muskegon, Fremont, Holland, and Morley, presenting the topics of “green manuring,” “clovers and grasses,” and “the family fruit garden.”3<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was said that Crozier “was never idle,” and his relentless pace might have contributed to the illness that would ultimately claim his life. In 1895, he “contracted a very severe cold from which he has never fully recovered.” This left him susceptible to tuberculosis; in spring 1897, he took a leave of absence to recuperate, first to New Mexico\u2014where he visited that territory’s College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, now New Mexico State University at Las Cruces\u2014and later to Arizona, San Francisco, and Hawaii. Unfortunately, none of these fresh-air remedies sufficed to heal him, and by summer 1898, he had resigned his position at the College and returned to his family home near Ann Arbor. He died there on January 28, 1899, at the age of forty-two.4<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of M.A.C.’s early names have passed into obscurity, yet in Crozier’s case it might be less about having been forgotten and more about having been erased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In December 1894, the Board of Agriculture resolved that “the forest areas of the College farm [\u2026] should be placed in such condition as to illustrate proper methods of handling wood lots for continued progress.” Notably, since these were part of the college farm, they fell under the authority of the agriculture department and Professor of Agriculture, Clinton D. Smith, rather than William J. Beal, the Professor of Botany and Forestry.5<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith assigned the task to Arthur Crozier, the Assistant Agriculturist, to inventory and assess some 194 acres of woodland. In the 34th Annual Report (1895), Crozier gives the complete tally:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Map
Map of the college farm, with Farm Lane<\/a> running down the center. Fields \u2116 20 (Sanford) and \u2116 21 (Pinetum) are not shown, east of field \u2116 7. Image source: 35th AR<\/a> (1896), p. 35.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n