SUPPLEMENTARY DATA. The following statement is mainly quoted from my report to the Superintendent of Public Instruction for the collegiate year ending August 19, 1885. The year has been one of great and important changes to the College, a transition period which has given much anxiety to its friends, but from which it promises to develop in continued vigor and usefulness. Within this year it has lost its president, secretary, and two of its professors. It has had one entirely new department added to its course, and two more so much enlarged from their former dimensions as to be practically new depart ments. November 24, 1884, Dr. T. C. Abbot tendered to the Board of Agriculture his resignation of the Presidency of the College. This step was one which, owing to failing health, he had for some time had in contemplation, and had previously informally announced to the Board. The following resolutions were drawn up by a committee of the Board, consisting of Governor Begole and Messrs. Chamberlain and Reynolds, and unanimously adopted: Resolved, That in accepting the resignation of Dr. T. C. Abbot from the Presidency of the Michigan Agricultural College, the State Board of Agriculture desires to express its high appreciation of his labors in that position during the past twenty-two years, and its belief that these labors have been largely instrumental in bringing this College to its present high position among institutions of its kind. We further take pleasure in the fact that the services of Dr, Abbot will not thus be lost to the Agricultural College, but that from a Professor's chair he will continue to help forward the cause of practical agricultural education in this Institution. Dr. Abbot's connection with the College began Feb. 5, 1858, when he was elected to the Professorship of English Literature. On Dec. 4, 1862, he was made President. At this same meeting of the Board of Agriculture, viz., Nov. 24, 1884, it was unanimously resolved that the Presidency of the College be tendered to the Hon. Edwin Willits, at that time Principal of the State Normal School. Jan. 8, 1885, this offer was accepted and the appointment formally made, and Dr. Abbot was elected Professor of Mental and Moral Science. Owing to Mr. Willits' engagement with the Normal School he was unable to enter upon his new duties at this College at once, and the transfer was not made until July 1, 1885, till which time Dr. Abbot continued as acting President. On August 4, 1885, after a severe illness of six months' continuance, Robert G. Baird, who had been Secretary of the Board and College since Aug. 25, 1875, died, and Henry G. Reynolds, of Old Missson, was elected to succeed him. Jan. 1, 1885, James Satterlee, Professor of Horticulture and Landscape Gardening and Superintendent of the Horticultural Department since 1883, closed his connection with the College by resignation, and Liberty H. Bailey, Jr., was elected to his position. The last annual report from this College contains a statement of the detail by the War Department of the United States of Second Lieutenant John A. Lockwood as Professor of Military Science and Tactics. Lt. Lockwood entered on duty at once, and during the past year has organized a volunteer cadet corps of ninety members, most of whom have provided themselves with uniforms. These uniforms cost from $14.00 to $20.00, and are not found to be an addition to the expenses of the students, as they simply take the place in cost of an equal amount in citizens' clothes. Instruction in tactics and other military subjects has been given by lectures. and recitations. The beneficial effects of the military training are seen in the more erect carriage of the students and in greater attention to neatness and promptness. The Legislature at its last session treated us very liberally in providing, among other things, for four new buildings, as follows: An Assembly Room for military drill, armory and general lecture purposes, brick, costing.. A Veterinary Laboratory, brick, costing. A Mechanical Laboratory, brick, costing A dwelling for the Professor of Mechanics, frame, costing. $6,000 00 5,400 00 7,800 00 4,000 00 The second of these buildings puts our Veterinary Department on a good working basis. It contains an operating room and lecture, dissecting and model rooms. In the latter are skeletons of the principal domestic animals, sets of veterinary instruments and medicines, a life size model of the horse so arranged that it can be completely dismembered and exhibit all the internal organism, etc., etc. Our Professor of Veterinary, Dr. E. A. A. Grange, is under the law enacted by the last Legislature, State Veterinarian. Under the appropriation for the establishment of a Mechanical Department at the College a new Professorship has been established which has been accepted by 'rof. Lewis McLouth, formerly of the State Normal School, and a fine large building has been completed and equipped for the new Course in Mechanic Arts. In this building there is a complete blacksmith shop and brass foundry, supplied with benches, forges, tools of all kinds and a Sturtevant pressure blower, a gift to the institution from the generous inventor and manufacturer. There is also an iron working shop, 50x60 feet, furnished with an engine, seven engine lathes, a planer, a shaper, a power drill, emery wheels, benches, vises, and tools and machinery necessary to a complete shop. A fine turret lathe has just been completed by the students. There is also a large wood-working shop, supplied with two lathes, a jig saw, benches, vises, and ten sets of carpenter's tools. Besides these there are offices, store-rooms, a large, well-lighted draughting room, a room for blue printing, a fine lecture-room for classes in mechanics, and a mechanical laboratory well supplied with apparatus. The Course in Mechanic Arts will lay especial stress on Natural Philosophy, Drawing and Draughting, Mathematics, Surveying and Engineering, Book-keeping, Business Forms, and Law, Political Economy, and daily shop practice in wood and metal work. The first two years of this course will be in outline as follows: FIRST YEAR. Autumn Term.-Shop Practice, Drawing, Algebra, English. Spring Term.-Shop Practice, Drawing, Natural Philosophy, Geometry. Summer Term.-Shop Practice, Natural Philosophy, English, Geometry. SECOND YEAR. Autumn Term.-Shop Practice, Algebra, Drawing, Natural Philosophy. Spring Term.-Shop Practice, Book-keeping and Business Forms and Law, Trigonometry, Natural Philosophy. Summer Term.-Shop Practice, Drawing, Mechanics, Elementary Chemistry. These two years of study will constitute an Apprentice Course in the Mechanic Arts, and it is believed will fit those who complete it to enter the manufacturing establishments of the State with such discipline of mind, of hand, and of eye, and with such knowledge of the principles underlying mechanical trades that they may soon become intelligent and expert workmen. An additional course of two years covering, it is hoped, something of the modern languages, the higher branches of Mathematics, of Engineering and of the other Sciences that bear upon the higher phases of mechanical industries will be arranged as soon as needed. The course in Agriculture remains much the same as last year. The following letter from the president of the Rose Polytechnic Institute is so concise and forcible a presentation of a question of vital importance wherever it is in contemplation to establish a school kindred to our own, that I take this method of preserving it for the use of those whom it will benefit. It is on the question INDEPENDENT AGRICULTURAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL SCHOOLS vs. AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENTS OF UNIVERSITIES. ROSE POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE. PRESIDENT'S ROOM, Terre Haute, Ind., February 15, 1885. MY DEAR SIR,-I have yours of February 11 at this moment, and, as I have formed a definite opinion on the matter you discuss, will not delay an answer. A school of technology, especially if its leading department is mechanics, unquestionably does better work when alone than when associated with other schools in a university. I can only indicate some of the reasons for this-reasons drawn partly from experience and partly from the nature of things. European experience is heavily in favor of separate establishments for technology; it is almost impossible to find there a strong university with a technological annex. Usually the universities and polytechnics are not found in the same towns. In the United States, the first two schools of technology were at West Point and at Troy, each independent, and each still flourishing. The next were at Cambridge and New Haven, each joined to a college; the Lawrence school of Harvard University at Cambridge has become practically extinct, and the Sheffield school at New Haven has acquired a substantially independent foundation as a school of pure science. Next in order come the institutes of technology at Boston, Hoboken, Worcester, etc., each heavily endowed and befriended by the most sagacious business men, who saw that independent schools of technology are what the times require. The reasons drawn from the nature of things are cogent, but are specially convincing in the minds of those who have had intimate knowledge of the young men of the country. In all universities the fact is that the courses which lead to the highest literary degrees absorb the best minds, even to the depletion of the sections that enter the other courses. This at least is the explicit statement of some eminent university professors, and it is perfectly reasonable. If purely literary courses and purely technological courses are placed side by side in a university, the traditional splendor of the one will cast a delusive glamour over it, 80 that young men whose real interests lie in the other are beguiled to a wrong choice. There is no reason why courses in agriculture and in the mechanic arts should not flourish side by side. Yours truly, CHARLES O. THOMPSON. AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE FACULTY AND OTHER OFFICERS. Edwin Willits, M. A., President, Professor of Political Science, Constitutional Law, and Business Law. Theophilus C. Abbot, LL. D., Professor of Mental Philosophy and Logic. Robert C. Kedzie, M. A., M. D., Professor of Chemistry, and Curator of the Chemical Laboratory. Albert J. Cook, M. S., Professor of Zoology and Entomology, and Curator of the General Museum. William J. Beal, M.S., Ph. D., Professor of Botany and Forestry, and Curator of the Botanical Museum. Rolla C. Carpenter, M. S., C. E., Professor of Mathematics and Civil Engineering. Samuel Johnson, Professor of Practical Agriculture, and Superintendent of the farm. Elias J. MacEwan, M.A., Professor of English Language and Literature. E. A. A. Grange, V.S., Professor of Veterinary Science. J. A. Lockwood, 2d Lieut., 17th U. S. Infantry, Professor of Military Science and Tactics. Liberty H. Bailey, Jr., B.S., Professor of Horticulture and Landscape Gardening, and Superintendent of the Horticultural Department. Lewis McLouth, M.A., Ph. D., Professor of Mechanics. Henry G. Reynolds, M. S., Secretary. Frank S. Kedzie, M. S., Assistant Professor of Chemistry. Louis G. Carpenter, M.S., Assistant Professor of Mathematics. Henry W. Baird, B. S., Assistant Secretary. Louis Knapper, Florist. Charles S. Crandall, B. S., Foreman of the Garden. Wednesday, August 19, the degree of Bachelor of Science was conferred upon 29 members of the Graduating Class, as follows: The degree of Master of Science was conferred on Hon. Chas. J. Monroe, Chas. W. McCurdy and Eugene Davenport. IN MEMORIAM. HON. H. G. WELLS. April 4, 1885, was a dark day to the members of the Michigan Agricultural College, for on that day the Hon. Hezekiah G. Wells departed this life. Judge Wells was named in the law for the re-organization of the Michigan Agricultural College as a member of the State Board of Agriculture. This place he held, by renewal of his appointment by successive Governors, for a period of twenty-one years, then resigning because he was unable to attend to the duties of his office. It is needless to say that from the first his opinions had great weight with the other members of the Board. They elected him their President, and continued him in that office to the last. He always gave unsparingly of his time and energies whenever they could help the College, and his large influence with the Legislature often secured appropriations to the Institution which, but for this influence, would have been lost. While all departments claimed his attention, he took special pleasure in watching the improvement and adornment of the grounds. The labor system met with his earnest support and approval; on his death bed he expressed the |