AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE LAND. TABLE Showing by Counties the Amount of Agricultural College Land Sold at Original Sale for the Year ending September 30, 1884. TABLE Showing_by_Counties the Number of Acres of Forfeited Agricultural College Lands sold during the Year ending September 30, 1884. AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE LANDS. TABLE Showing by Counties the Number of Acres of Agricultural College Lands vacant for the Year ending September 30, 1884. DEPARTMENT REPORTS. PRESIDENT'S REPORT. To the Honorable the State Board of Agriculture: I respectfully submit the following report of the State Agricultural College for the year 1884, and of the academic year, September 1, 1883, to September 1, 1884, together with the reports of the heads of the several departments of the college. In the report for 1882, I compiled and published the Laws of the United States, and of this State, relative to the college, and in the report for last year, page 14, the law passed in 1883 relative to the reports of the Board of Agriculture, and page 16, the Act making appropriations to the college for 1883 and 1884. Nothing remains unpublished in our reports of legal enactment now in force regarding the college. The rules and regulations of the Board, for the guidance of the Faculty have never been compiled, and the last compilation of rules enacted by the Faculty is now six years old and somewhat antiquated. The Board and its officers remain unchanged from the catalogue given in the last report (1883), page 3, and the committees are given in the same volume, page 18. The committees of the Faculty as given (1883), remained unchanged. Mr. Eugene D. Miller retires from the position of foreman of the vegetable garden, which he has filled with efficiency. His successor has not yet been choseu. Second Lieutenant J. A. Lockwood, of the 17th United States Infantry, has been detailed by the President of the United States to serve as Professor of Military Science and Tactics in the College, and has already entered on duty. The specific duties are still to be arranged for in further conference with the Board. COMMENCEMENT, 1884. The exercises of commencement season began with a baccalaureate sermon to the graduating class, on Sunday afternoon, August 10th. The Senior Class Day exercises took place Monday evening, and were highly spoken of by those in attendance. A meeting of the Board of Agriculture, prevented, as usual, the attendance of any of its members. The commencement exercises took place in the college chapel on the morning of Tuesday, August 12. It was estimated that four hundred strangers were excluded from the hall by lack of room. The class motto was, "Not for School, but for Life we Learn." The music was furnished by Speil's orches tra of Detroit. The orations were by speakers elected to represent the class: Miss Alice A. Johnson, and Messrs. Abbot, Baker, Bank, Barry, Hill, Smith, and Sutton. After a short address from Gov. Begole the degree of Bachelor of Science was then conferred on Joseph R. Abbot, Lansing. Fred J. Hodges, South Haven. Alice A. Johnson, Agricultural College. Homer D. Luce, Gilead. Charles McDiarmid, Bear Lake. Alverson W. Page, Jr., Broadland, Dak. Andrew Park, Thornville. Benjamin C. Porter, Grand Rapids. Clarence E. Smith, Jewett City, Conn. Archie W. Sutton, Morenci, Michitaro Tsuda, Tokio, Japan. Emerson E. Vance, Matherton The thirty graduates bring the total number of graduates up to 332. The degree of Master of Science was at the same time conferred on Mr. Clarence M. Weed, of the class of 1883, who has spent the entire year at this college and at Cornell University in the enthusiastic study of entomology. The number of students in the year September, 1883, to August 31, 1884, has been The average age of the Seniors was somewhat over 22 years, of the Juniors over 20, of Sophomores and Freshmen over 18, and of Specials nearly 21 years. IMPROVEMENTS. Since the last report the Agricultural College has been made a post office by the U. S. government, and the Secretary of the College appointed postmaster. The plan of having a government signal service station at the College has failed through the lack of funds appropriated by Congress to the signal service. Colonel Hazen, chief of the department, will put a station at this College into his next estimates. On the other hand the State Fish Commission has made a station of the College, and will prosecute the work of forming ponds and introducing fish more vigorously another year. Some German carp have already been introduced into the ponds of the Botanic Gardens. EXPERIMENT STATION. The following bill is now before the Congress of the United States: A Bill to establish agricultural experiment stations in connection with the colleges established in the several States under the provisions of an act approved July second, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, and of the acts supplementary thereto. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That in order to aid the Department of Agriculture in acquiring and diffusing among the people of the United States useful and practical information on subjects connected with agriculture, and to promote scientific investigation and experiment respecting the principles and applications of agricultural science, there shall be established, in connection with the college or colleges in each State established, or which may hereafter be established, in accordance with the provisions of an act approved July second, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, entitled "An act donating public lands to the several States and Territories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agricultural and the mechanic arts," or any of the supplements to said act, a department to be known and designated as an agricultural experiment station:" Provided, That in any State in which two such colleges have been or may be so established, the appropriation hereinafter made to such State shall be equally divided between such colleges, unless the legislature of such State shall otherwise direct. 66 SEC. 2. That it shall be the object and duty of said experiment stations to conduct original researches or verify experiments on the physiology of plants and animals; the diseases to which they are severally subject, with the remedies for the same; the chemical composition of useful plants at their different stages of growth; the comparative advantages of rotative cropping as pursued under a varying series of crops, the capacity of new plants or trees for acclimation within the isothermal limits represented by the climate of the several stations and their vicinity; the analysis of soils and water; the chemical composition of manures, natural or artificial, with experiments designed to test their comparative effects on crops of different kinds; the adaptation and value of grasses and forage plants; the composition and digestibility of the different kinds of food for domestic animals; the scientific and economic questions involved in the production of butter and cheese; and such other researches or experiments bearing directly on the agricultural industry of the United States as may in each case be deemed advisible, having due regard to the varying conditions and needs of the respective States. SEC. 3. That the said experiment stations shall be under the direction and control of the trustees or other governing body of such colleges, who shall have power to appoint a director and such assistants as may in each case be necessary. SEC. 4. That in order to secure, as far as practicable, uniformity of methods and results in the work of said stations, it shall be the duty of the United States Commissioner of Agriculture to determine annually a standard of valuation of the ingredients of commercial fertilizers, upon which the analysis of such fertilizers, as far as made by said stations, shall be based; to furnish forms, as far as practicable, for the tabulation of the results of investigation or experiments; to indicate, from time to time, such lines of inquiry as to him shall seem most important; and, in general, to furnish such advice and assistance as will best promote the purposes of this act; but nothing herein contained shall be construed to authorize said Commissioner to control or direct the work or management of any such station except as to the standard of valuation of commercial fertilizers. It shall be the duty of each of said stations, annually, on or before the first day of February, to make to the governor of the State in which it is located a full and detailed report of its operations, including a statement of receipts and expenditures, a copy of which report shall be sent to each of said stations, to the said Commissioner of Agriculture, and to the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. SEC. 5. That in order to make the results of the work of said stations immediately useful, they shall publish at least once in every three months bulletins or reports of progress, one copy of which shall be sent to each newspaper in the States in which they are respectively located, and to such individuals actually engaged in farming as may request the same, and as far as the means of the station will permit. Such bulletins or reports and the annual reports of said stations shall be transmitted in the mails of the United States free of charge for postage, under such regulations as the Postmaster-General may from time to time prescribe. SEC. 6. That for the purpose of paying the salaries and wages of the director and other employés of said stations, and the necessary expenses of conducting investiga |