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GUTTER.

About two feet above the sill where the glass begins a wooden moulded gutter goes around the houses, and is secured by brackets which "are useful as well as ornamental."

GLASS.

These are double thick French, 8x10 for the lower portion of the rafter, and 10x14 for the upper portion. The sash are all ten inches apart. The glass are bedded in putty prepared in lead and oil. They are held in place by four half-inch zinc shoe nails to each glass. There is no putty outside, but a very thick coat of paint fills all the cracks. None of the glass are curved.

SHELVING.

All around the sides of the houses are shelves about three feet wide and two and a half high. They are made of inch matched boards, planed and painted; around the edge is a § inch thick band rising one inch to retain the sand to set pots in. The shelves are supported by 2x3 inch pine posts, resting on stones bedded in the ground.

In the center of the conservatory and rose house are shelves rising like steps toward the center of the house. In the stove-room, the larger tropical plants are set out in a bed of rich soil.

PAINT.

All the wood-work was painted one coat before erecting and two coats after. The rafters and purlines are painted inside with pearl white, and the sash a light sky blue. All the joints are put together in green paint. The outside is a drab with darker trimmings.

HEATING.

This is done by warm water. The conservatory has five rows of four-inch pipe on the north side and four rows on the south side. The stove-house has five rows on each side; the rose-house has four rows; the grapery three rows. In each room are valves for regulating the heat by checking the flow of warm water. There is an expansion tank for each room. On the pipes are a quanntity of cast-iron pans, filled with water, to keep the air moist. The boiler is of cast-iron, made in sections, which sit side by side on edge,--some like a row of books. It is intended for wood or coal. A brick arch or box covers it and helps retain the heat, So far the house has worked well. We had some severe weather last winter after moving into it.

COST.

A house of the same size could have been built for much less money. A cheap greenhouse, if at all ornamental, will last but a few years. It should be built in the most careful manner and of the best possible materials. This house was said to be framed and all ready to put up before it was shipped here, yet the men paid for over seventy week's board while here putting the glass rooms together. This does not include the central stages, nor the mason-work nor the wooden building. There are a good many nice points about it which an inexperienced builder would never have thought of.

[blocks in formation]

300 00

5,622 00

808 00

62 38

Walls for pits, not yet covered by pits, and bricks for pit wall...

Contract for glass rooms...

Contract for potting room and all of wooden building.

Piers and arch for heating apparatus..

Center staging in two rooms..

Gutters and water pipes..

Pump and lead pipe inside..

Tank....

Paths and cellar (materials for) - -

Well and pump...

Total

181 99

10 38

22 71

4 66

67 75

34 85

$8,000 00

In addition to the above are sundry other expenses incurred about the pumps, hose, grouting, etc. Students' labor was used in digging the cellar and cisterns, and in grading the lawn and grouting the cellar and paths, etc.

PROPAGATING PITS.

It will be seen we have the walls and cistern for these, costing about $500. We also have about glass enough taken from the old house. We can, with close economy, complete the pits for about $500 more.

WHAT IS THE HOUSE FOR?

We need the propagating pits for starting young plants, and for keeping large plants while resting or out of flower. Some parts of our present rooms are rendered of little interest because we are obliged to use them as we would propagating pits. In case of accident to our boiler, we might meet with great losses, as all are heated with one fire. The second fire for the flues would guard against accident. We need the house for students (especially for advanced students in botany) to practice in, and to afford rare and curious plants for study and illustration for any one, whether student of this College or any other, or no college at all; whether florist, physician, gardener, or farmer. Here we are beginning to collect the rarer exotic plants, not found in most houses of this kind. We are also getting, and intend to add largely, economic plants,those which afford food, clothing, and which are of use in medicine and in various arts. Then we want a catalogue, giving short accounts of each, which should be well labeled. We want the house, too, for performing various experiments. Many men of wealth and refinement have greenhouses. Many have them who are not considered rich. Even the poorest often have a few plants to cheer the dreary cold of winter. Our visitors have largely increased. I think they have more than doubled since we have moved into the new house. Hundred come and go without visiting any other building about the grounds of the College. Why is this, if there is not an increasing interest in greenhouse plants? The influence is refining, ennobling, and we are thankful for the privilege of doing something in so good a cause. The poor as well as the rich, young and old, from city and country alike, are delighted and refreshed by a visit to the greenhouse of the State Agricultural College.

THE OLD GREENHOUSE

has been torn down, the glass saved in boxes, the stones used for apiary and drives. Some are still in piles, as are also the bricks. Most of the lumber was rotten and worthless. A smooth green lawn grows over the site of the old greenhouse.

FLOWER BEDS.

On account of the limited amount of labor for this purpose, flower beds have been confined to the lawn north of the house. The beds are of various styles, cut in the lawn, which has been supplied with paths of graceful appear

ance.

LAWN.

This has been graded and seeded about the new green-house. In certain portions choice (and some rare) trees and shrubs have been planted. For these, no money has been used except to pay freight.

ORNAMENTAL TREES.

We are under great obligations for plants and trees furnished without charge by I. E. Ilgenfritz & Co., Monroe, Mich.; N. & C. Chilson, Battle Creek, Mich.; Geo. Taylor, Kalamazoo, Mich.; L. G. Bragg & Co., Kalamazoo, Mich.; J. Suttle, Grand Rapids, Mich.

The grass a little away from the building has been mown twice. In many places rough spots have been made smooth so that the grass may be cut with the horse mower. A good dressing of ashes has been applied, with one of clay and muck on sandy portions. Small portions have received barnyard manure.

DRY SEASON.

The season in spring and summer and autumn, on account of severe dry spells, has been the most trying one to newly set trees I ever knew. Some of those newly set have died, though much care was used to save them on our light soil by mulching and culture, and in a few cases, by occasional watering. The groves of trees set in numerous places on the lawn have been thoroughly cultivated, with an excellent effect on the trees. The Norway Spruce trees sent by L. G. Bragg & Co. have been set for an ornamental and protecting hedge near the greenhouse. We ought to have samples of still other trees and

shrubs in form of a hedge.

THINNING.

Three of the old oaks which had been topped years ago have died and been dug out. Near the buildings the natural groves have been thinned a little each year by removing here and there a tree, to make more room for the better development of the others.

TRIMMING.

This has been attended to by removing all dead limbs, by shortening in and taking out old stems of shrubs, etc.

WALKS AND DRIVES.

Within the last two years one hundred and sixty-six (166) square rods have been well graveled, and in most cases the edges graded and sodded. All this has been done in accordance with the plan of Mr. Oliver, adopted by the Board of Agriculture three years ago. About the building, the old paths are, many of

them, changed and new ones formed which the Superintendent trusts may be permanent. On account of the dry autumn, there are many patches and strips without grass where drives have been changed, but these will be seeded in spring.

RUSTIC BRIDGES.

Two new rustic bridges have been made of oak logs, peeled to make them more durable. One is a foot-bridge over the open ditch by the willows in the path from the Professors' houses to the College buildings. The other is a wagon bridge, 16 feet wide, with five piers, over the brook and hollow just west of the chemical laboratory. This bridge has been much admired by almost every body. We have never heard of any one who was not pleased with it. The bridge is in the main drive which is laid out from the west entrance and which runs near the river bank to the college buildings.

BIRD HOUSES.

Several of the Seniors made and put up bird-houses of neat designs in the groves, on trees.

The path to professors' houses has been filled with cobble stone in the bottom and gravel on top. This is the path most used in bad weather, and is well made to insure dry traveling in the worst weather.

The ground about the three new dwelling-houses has been plowed and about half of it graded.

WELL DONE.

Mr. Oliver came this summer, reviewed his former plan, and in harmony with it laid out paths and drives about the new houses. It was gratifying to the Superintendent to receive from this veteran and experienced landscape gardener repeated and earnest compliments as to the excellent manner in which the drives and paths had been built so far as undertaken.

Immediately in the spring a good deal more work should be done about the new houses in grading, seeding, making drives, and planting trees. The ground is clay. After every rain the residents are now in the mud.

We have a good deal of ground to go over, to keep in order. It demands much labor and some money; but the citizens of Michigan need frequent good examples of well-kept places for study,-for example. It is money well spent. Remove the trees, throw out the drives and paths and grading and all attempts at improving the beauty of the place, and all would acknowledge at a glance the value of the beautiful and ornamental.

There is no lesson of more importance than to teach the art of making home pleasant. This is one of the ways to keep the boys and girls on the farm and to make them satisfied with their situation. For the want of something nice many a boy has left the country home, made a poor lawyer, or clerk in a grocery store, who would have made a good, successful farmer.

VEGETABLE GARDEN.

In this department no attempt has been made to raise any more than was needed at the boarding hall. Notwithstanding the severity of the drouth, the crops, with scarcely an exception, have been excellent. This has been accomplished by heavy manuring and by thorough and frequent cultivation, often cultivated every four to seven days, wet or dry (our soil is sandy), weeds or no

weeds.

GREEN MANURING.

After early potatoes we drilled in corn and plowed under in fall.

PROFITS.

The success of the garden cannot be shown in dollars and cents. We have taken some time in fixing the drives, in keeping things tidy. We have been extremely careful about weeds, allowing but very few to seed, and in removing even these before seed were scattered. By this means, for good crops and absence of weeds we have received many hearty compliments from visitors from every quarter, and have been setting the "boys a good example."

WEEDS.

Weeds are becoming scarcer in the vegetable garden, though the ground contains some seeds yet. We have raised too many kinds of vegetables for getting the greatest money value for our work, but this seems necessary in a place

like this.

SAMPLES.

We raise many things by samples only. This needs care in seeding, in culture, and harvesting. Large numbers of species and varieties add to the cost of the garden.

WINDMILL IRRIGATION.

I have no hesitation in urging again the importance of some means of irrigating for experiments. We must always be subject to severe drought. Many times the crop of strawberries, cabbage, and other crops is not half what it ought to be on account of dry weather. In some cases certain crops are almost a failure for want of moisture in just the "nick of time." Moisture saves manure, it insures a crop. At present, for experiment, I would begin on a small scale. Two hundred dollars will do the work,-put up the windmill.

GRASS PATCHES.

These have been kept up, and though requiring much of my personal attention I intend to make them still more instructive and interesting. About 120 bunches of different species were labeled and exhibited at the State Fair, where they attracted much attention. Astonishing ignorance prevails among our farmers in reference to the kinds of grasses.

EXPERIMENTS.

CROSS-FERTILIZATION OF APPLES.

For a number of years pomologists have appreciated the desirability of combining in one variety of fruit the good qualities that are found separately in different sorts. To this end various attempts have been made with a fair degree of success, especially in grapes. Twenty-five dollars was appropriated for the purpose of carrying on a series of experiments in the crossing of apples in the College orchard.

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