largely quoted by the agricultural press of this country and by at least one journal in England. Owing to the amount of work required in the museum and on the herbarium, with the care of the arboretum, botanic garden and classes, I have been unable to make many experiments, though I have seen much that I should like to undertake College work prevented me from taking any part in the recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, held at Ann Arbor. I was also, for the same reason, unable to present a very worthy paper at the meeting of the Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science, held at Ann Arbor. In undertaking a large number of experiments during the time I was professor of botany and horticulture, I often attempted more than could be satisfactorily completed. A lack of means also sometimes made it necessary to drop some experiments before completion. To properly complete some that were begun would require years of repetition before reliable results could be obtained. As I am now no longer professor of horticulture, but professor of botany and forestry, it has seemed to me that all the time at my disposal could profitably be given the study of grasses and the diseases of plants, or the low forms of plants injurious to vegetation. A study of the latter is close, hard work, which has been too much neglected, but is likely soon to assume the prominence attained by economic entomology. To one who has made many experiments, and seen a little how difficult it is to arrive at correct conclusions, and how slow the people are to give due credit for the same, the encouragement for work in this direction is not very great, especially when the time and means are limited. In closing, I cannot help telling you how much I appreciate the great interest and cordial support in word ard actions you have given the Botanical Department. It does one good to see your enthusiasm spreading through all the work of the college from the faculty and students to the humblest employé. It certainly bespeaks a rapid growth and greater efficiency of the Michigan Agricultural College. Cordially your friend, W. J. BEAL, Prof. of Botany and Forestry. AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, Sept. 29, 1885. REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS AND ENGINEERING. To President Edwin Willits: DEAR SIR:-I have pleasure in submitting to you the following Report of the Department of Mathematics and Engineering for the year ending September 30, 1885. CLASS WORK. My assistant, L. G. Carpenter, whose report is appended, taught classes in algebra, geometry and drawing, astronomy for the fall term of 1884, having on the average three and one-half classes each day. I taught classes in agricultural engineering, civil engineering, surveying, trigonometry, algebra, mechanics, astronomy and drawing, making an average of two and one-half classes each day. The topics taught in each class are, I think, fully indicated in the catalogue. The following in tabulated form will probably confer any information desired respecting the class work: In addition to the class work I have attended to the following college duties: I have superintended and designed repairs to the steam works, pumps, engines and machinery. Since September 1st I have had supervision of the work of college carpenter. I also prepared drawings and specifications for the new mechanical building and I have had charge of the shop work of the students in the mechanical department. A separate report of the repairs in brick, iron and wood, and of the improvements needed, will be submitted. COURSE IN MECHANIC ARTS AND ENGINEERING. In this course I have charge of the shop work and drawing, both of which pertain to the province of engineering. Our building for shops not being completed it became impossible to carry out the systematic shop work which had been planned. At one time it was questioned whether any shop instruction better be attempted until the new shop was completed, it was finally decided, however, to give all the shop instruction possible in our existing buildings. Accordingly benches were fitted in all available parts of the boiler house, forges were erected near the boilers, and such money as could be afforded was invested in tools for iron and wood working. Room for six students to work in wood was found in the old brick carpenter shop. Places were found for twenty-five students, or for nearly all entering that course. Subsequent events proved the wisdom of the latter course, for more has been accomplished than the most sanguine expected. Our policy of managing the shops is to keep the labor, so far as it possibly can be made educational, employed on objects of utility. No wages are paid for this labor, but a time account is kept against each piece of work. The students have been very enthusiastic in the work. In the wood shop, the young men acquired considerable skill in the use of the saw, plane, square, hammer, and in making glue joints, while at the same time the work has been wholly given to useful articles. Students have constructed packing boxes, bench work, tool cases and patterns for foundry work. Mr. H. B. Mohn has had charge of the wood working, and, considering the disadvantages of having a bad room, poor benches and no power, has done exceedingly well. In the iron shops we were somewhat better equipped, as we had one good room in the boiler-house into which we could put our machinery. The room has been very much crowded, but still it has answered very nicely. In the room, 23x38 feet, we had the following machines: One 18-inch lathe, F. S. Perkins, Lowell, Mass. One 10-inch lathe, Warner & Swasey, Cleveland. One planer 24 inch by 24 inch by 8 feet, G. A. Gray, Jr. & Co., Cincinnati. One 20-inch drill press, F. E. Reed, Worcester, Mass. One gig-saw, our own make, and benches for eight students. The iron work has been in charge of Mr. James Wiseman, our engineer. He has proved himself very competent as a workman and an instructor. The students have been at work principally on two turret lathes of which the castings were obtained of the Frontier Iron and Brass Works, Detroit. We did not get at work on these until about September 28, so at this date but little has been done. We hope, however, to have one lathe ready for work in the spring term 1886. The students have evinced great enthusiasm for this work and we have had little or nothing to complain of on the score of carelessness or neglect. The amount available for equipment of the shops is only about $2,300, and until more money can be obtained we shall labor under great disadvantages so far as machinery is concerned. Had it not been for the machinery previously bought, very little could have been done with the large class already admitted to the college. As it is we can afford instruction only as follows: hand wood working 8, lathe work in wood 2, blacksmith work 8, bench work in iron 10, machine work in iron 8, or a total of 36 students. With proper plant we could in time complete our own equipment, but in the meanwhile we are likely to suffer by not having tools enough for the students. We are already at work on two 15-inch lathes; when these are completed we propose to construct a small engine and engine-lathe. These will help our equipment materially. In all our dealings with the manufacturers we have found them very liberal and willing to give great concessions for the sake of aiding the college and of introducing their tools. We invariably obtained large discounts, and many drawings have been donated. Mr. B. F. Sturtevant, of Boston, Mass., very liberally donated to the college a 24-inch pressure blower and eight blast gates, to be used in the blacksmith shops. This is a very liberal donation indeed, and considering the number of tools needed and the small amount of our available fund is very acceptable. Prof. Louis McLouth, who has the general oversight of the education matters pertaining to the mechanical department, will no doubt report fully in regard to further resources and needs of the Department. I am, sir, respectfully yours, Prof. of Mathematics and Civil Engineering. AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, September 30, 1885. REPORT OF THE PROFESSOR OF VETERINARY SCIENCE. To the President: SIR: I beg to submit the following report of work done in the Veterinary Department for the year 1884-5. In September 1884, the second course of veterinary science commenced at this college. The class consisted of 26 students. The autumn term was devoted, as on a previous occasion, to instruction in veterinary anatomy; the horse being taken as the standard, and comparisons were made from it of the ox, sheep, and hog, when with the aid of skeletons, and other equipments lent me by several departments of the college I was able to illustrate many of my lectures, in I trust, a satisfactory manner. Towards the close of this term the students purchased a horse, which enabled us to do some practical work in anatomy; this I felt proved a great aid in impressing on their minds, the situation, structure, and relations of many parts, which it would be difficult to do without an actual subject, and although the class and myself labored under much difficulty, as we were without a proper dissecting room to do our work in, yet I feel that we were richly repaid for any trouble we went to. While doing this work I divided the class into two divisions; No. 1 working the first part of the afternoon, and No. 2 the second part; by this arrangement the other duties of the students were not interfered with, and I was not inconvenienced by too many persons being around the cadaver at one time. Before the animal was killed it was put under the influence of chloroform, which enabled me to show the class some of the ordinary operations of veterinary surgery in a practical and humane manner. SPRING TERM, 1885. During this term my class was composed of 28 Seniors and one special; my work consisted in giving daily lectures upon the diseases which affect the external surface of the body of the domestic animals, as well as one weekly lecture upon materia medica, in which I described the actions, uses, doses, and many other matters relative to the handling of drugs. I also gave several lectures upon the external conformation of the horse, as well as the manner of examining an animal for soundness prior to purchase. In pursuing this study I first of all went over the many points in the lecture room, having a life sized diagram to illustrate my remarks, after which I borrowed a few horses and went through the operation in a practical manner, discussing, as we went along, the good and bad points of the animals before us. DURING THE SUMMER TERM my class consisted of 25 students, and my work consisted in giving lectures upon the internal diseases of the domestic animals; I also continued my lectures upon materia medica. It may be worthy of special mention, that during this. term I gave a number of lectures upon veterinary obstetrics which I illustrated with large diagrams and described many difficulties in parturition, pointing out the important features to be observed in labored cases of calving, lambing, foaling, etc., which I consider very important subjects to those engaged in stock raising. I illustrated other lectures in this course with actual cases of disease when it was possible for me to do so. OUTSIDE WORK. During the autumn of '84 I delivered addresses upon subjects relating to live stock before the Shorthorn and Holstein associations of this State. In the winter I lectured at three Farmers' Institutes, and in my turn I delivered the Wednesday afternoon lecture at the college. I also attended to the veterinary requirements of the animals in the horticultural and agricultural departments, of this institution. I prepared and issued a bulletin, as required by an act of the Legislature recently adjourned. In July of this year I was appointed State Veterinarian by the Governor of the State, since which time I have attended to the several matters required in that office. I wish to add that the very liberal appropriation given to the Veterinary Department by the Legislature of 1885 will enable me to conduct my various exercises at the college with, I trust, very much greater benefit to those students who may elect this study as part of their college course, as the building now in course of erection will be equipped with models, instruments, dissecting and operating rooms, and other materials, with which I can readily illustrate my lectures much better than I have ever been able to do in the past. Very respectfully submitted. E. A. A. GRANGE, AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, Sept. 1, 1885. Professor of Veterinary Science. REPORT OF THE PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. To the President: I have the honor of submitting the following brief report of my work for the year 1884-5: A year ago, a change was made in the English course owing to the evident necessity, that our Freshmen should be equipped with a better knowledge of English before beginning the study of rhetoric; and it was my duty to give the class then entering, instruction in such topics as should most fully prepare them for subsequent work. The Freshmen, with a few specials, made a class of fiftyeight, and were taught in two divisions. Whitney's Essentials of English was used as a text-book. Beginning with the structure of the simple sentence, the class was led step by step through all the varieties of English construction, being required not only to explain the examples furnished in the text-book, but to bring in for discussion those of interest, found in their general reading. Then the general principles of etymology were taken up, with reference to derivation and composition. The verb, with its peculiarities of formation, was given special attention. A little book of Shakespearean selections in Clark and Maynard's English classic series, furnished the text for analysis and parsing, the last month of the term. The wisdom of the change in the course was fully vindicated when the class took up rhetoric in the summer term. My other work during the full term, was elocution with the Freshmen, Shakespeare readings with Juniors, and English literature with the Seniors. The freshmen met in sections six times a week, for voice culture, drill in position, |