discipline was to be preferred to numbers, the Faculty, at the semi-yearly examination in July, refused to pass all who could not pursue the studies of the course with profit to themselves and credit to the College, and eight thus, for the year at least, left the Institution. We have had no Junior class the present year. On the extension of the course of study, under the rëorganization of the College, the students were disposed in the different classes as nearly as might be, in accordance with their acquirements. The arrangement gave us a graduating class for last year, but none for this, and the Junior exhibition was delayed until the usual commencement season.

In accordance with the plan of operations for the present year, the farm, gardens, and grounds were re-mapped, and several improvements made. A new farm road has been built from the new bridge, running north to intersect a new road running east from the College grounds opposite the old brick barn. One line of fence of the first named road has been continued to the plank road, and the portion east of it divided into three fields of twenty acres each. One division fence has been made. It is proposed this autumn, if possible, to run a fence on a line with the west face of the new barn from the plank road to the river. The new road running east divides the portion just east of this fence into two fields of eleven acres each. The temporary barns have been removed. The fields south of the bridge have been squared, by logging and burning, and the fallow, 23 acres, put into wheat. The road crossing the bridge extends south, dividing the main part of the farm into equal parts, which are again divided, so far as cleared, into fields.

The trees in the apple orchard appear to be in good condition, and should, it is thought, begin to bear fruit another season. There are 250 trees. They were set out by President Williams, but no record was kept of them, and the varieties must be determined mostly after fruiting.

Ground has been prepared, on a piece of clayey soil, for a pear orchard of ninety-nine standard pears, with dwarfs be

tween. A first growth of clover was turned under in the summer. In the autumn the ground was heavily manured, and again plowed. A subsoil plow followed in the furrow of a heavy plow, after which the whole ground was drained with tile between each two rows of standard trees.

In the College grounds, the trees and shrubs presented the College by the eminent botanist, Dr. Gray, of Harvard University, by Mr. Buchanan, of New York, and others, are mostly alive and thriving. So much have the grounds been adorned that the west side of the College building now seems to be as it was intended to be, the front. The weeds in the ravine to the west, running between the vegetable and fruit gardens, have given place to a grass lawn. The grove in the College grounds north and north-west of the College buildings, has been cleared of stumps-the Willis machine having been put to use for the first time in five years, and working well. The ground can be graded and seeded in the spring, and when made into a smooth, green lawn and grove, looking out on ample grounds no longer shut in by erratic and too numerous fences, will add much to the beauty of the place.

A portion of the garden grounds was prepared for English spring wheat, sent by the Hon. J. M. Howard, from the Agricul tural Department at Washington. It was beautiful wheat to look at, but was found infested within the kernel by the wecvil. We were obliged to burn the wheat. The true weevil works within the kernels, leaving the wheat a pile of fair looking shells. It is unknown in Michigan. Our farmers and newspaper correspondents have a habit of calling other injurious insects by the name weevil. This is an injury to them, and to the reputation of our State, for wherever the nature of the true weevil is known, Michigan wheat, lying under a false accusation, is less valued, and in less demand.

The grounds and the various gardens have been under the immediate charge of A. N. Prentiss, B. S., the Instructor in Botany and Horticulture, who has, in connection with his regu

lar class-room and out of door instruction, delivered in the chapel a course of public lectures on Horticulture.

The farm has, during the last half year, been, at the request of the President of the College, under the immediate oversight of M. Miles, M. D., the Professor of Animal Physiology. He has represented the farm, so to speak, in the Faculty, and has delivered to the College a course of lectures on the manual operations on the farm. Our wheat and corn shared in the general damage done those crops in our vicinity. The hay was cut with a Buckeye, Jr., mower, and although used by students. on fields uneven and full of stumps, not so much damage was done the implement as even the breaking of a section of a knife.

The experiments upon the farm the present season have been under the charge of R. C. Kedzie, A. M., M. D., Professor of Chemistry. We would refer you to his reports to the Faculty for particulars. They consisted in the use of top dressings and of manuring in the hill with salt, muck, night-soil, &c., on grass, corn and potatoes. The students of the highest class performed the work. They received instructions in the methods to be pursued, and did their work under the eye of the Professor, each being responsible for some one complete experiment. They made their reports to the Professor, who, in turn, made his report to the Faculty of the College. The general results, and the results of the experiments of the Professor on the absorptive properties of soils, on muck, the influence of the color of soil on its temperature, &c., were given to the College at large, in a series of public lectures.

The Meteorological Records have been kept by Dr. Kedzie. They have been made with barometer, thermometer, wet bulb hygrometer, rain-gage, &c., and kept in accordance with forms recommended by the Smithsonian Institute at Washington. That Institution has furnished blanks, and returns have been made to it monthly. Many items have been published in the papers of the State, and have attracted the notice of meteorological observers of New England, as revealing unexpected

phenomena connected with our climate. The records of these observations are submitted to the Board in full.

The stock has been under the immediate oversight of Dr. Miles, Professor of Animal Physiology. It was resolved by your honorable body, to enter at once upon supplying the College with the finest specimens of various breeds of animals, to serve students as standards of excellence, comparison and contrast. The College was possessed of some excellent swine, -Essex and Suffolk-but otherwise had no pure breed of animals. The beginning of a better collection was made in the generous gift of a beautiful Short-Horn heifer, by the Hon. J. B. Crippen, of Coldwater. This valuable animal is now at the College, and her pedigree is given in the appendix to this Report. The three Short-Horn, and the three Devon cattle, purchased under the resolution of the Board, from the herds of New England and New York, are also in good condition. Their pedigree and other characteristics are also given. They are beautiful animals, not to be equaled, it is thought, in the State.

The Faculty requested Dr. Miles to endeavor to dispose of the poorer of our native stock and supply their place with a less number of fine animals. He has acted in accordance with this request, and bought some grade cattle of fair quality. He expects to exchange our sheep for a breeding stock. A selection of animals, sufficient for purposes of instruction and comparison, is considered by the Faculty as of prime importance to the Institution.

Owing to the lateness of the season before the full plans of the Faculty could be put in operation, and owing also to delay in procuring the requisite books, less has been done to give students some acquaintance with military affairs than was anticipated. Students have drilled twice a week, for a portion of the year, under Mr. Prentiss. Members of our Faculty fortunately have had some acquaintance with army life, two of them having been members of the army in a company of engineers, and one a surgeon in the army. A short course of lectures has

been delivered on Field Fortifications, and another on Military

Hygiene.

The Herbarium of the College, the noble gift of Mrs. Babbitt, of Washington, Macomb county, widow of the late Dr. Cooley, the collector of it, is at the College. The earlier portions are arranged in accordance with the Linnæan system of classification, and many of the later collections are as yet unarranged. The plants are all labeled, and in excellent preservation. It will cost about one hundred and fifty dollars to classify and put up the plants for ready use. We recommend the purchase of twenty-five dollars worth of paper to commence the work during the coming winter, as the botanist intimates his willingness to enter upon the requisite labor. As it is, the Herbarium has been of great service to the class the present season. It has been found impossible to complete the subsoil and surface survey of the farm for want of time. Several fields have been gone over, and colored maps made. out-door to in-door labor imposed on nearly every member of the Faculty, has kept us all busy almost every moment of each day. It will be carried forward as fast as may be. We had made, and have successfully used, a tool, like a cheese-tester, for examining subsoils.

But the addition of

A job of ditching was let on the large marsh, but its extreme wetness has prevented its being done. Another job was let on land adjoining that sold to George B. Vanetta.

The Agricultural College has peculiar needs of intimate relations with the public. It appeals for support and looks for students to a class that are peculiarly independent of a professional education, so far as the acquirement of property is concerned. Farmers grow wealthy every day with no more education than suffices to transact their business with others, and to read the daily or weekly papers. It is not so with the lawyer, physician, or divine. As it becomes more widely known how easily an education may be obtained at the College, how thorough is the discipline, how admirable the means of illustration which the State has placed at their command, and how