The Farmers' Institutes of 1884 were all held according to the programme adopted by the board, and proved highly acceptable and useful in the communities where they were held. I had the pleasure of attending and participating in the Institutes held in Berrien Center and Grand Rapids.

NEW APPARATUS.

There have been many additions of new and valuable apparatus to the chemical department during the year. Among these I may mention a beautiful three-horse-power steam engine from the shop of P. F. Olds & Son, of Lansing. The new apparatus adds to the facility and value of class-room illustration, and creates new zeal in scholar and teacher alike.

Respectfully submitted,

AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE,

September, 1884.

R. C. KEDZIE, Professor of Chemistry.

REPORT OF THE ZOOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT.

To the President:

I herewith submit a report of my department for the past college year. My class-room and laboratory work have been much as usual. The students have been attentive, and have made good progress. The Senior class which studied zoology and geology during the autumn term numbered thirty-two. The Junior class which studied anatomy the same term numbered thirtythree. This last class, in physiology, in the spring term numbered thirty-five. The same number took the usual course in entomology in the summer term. The details of this work have been given in previous reports and need not be repeated.

During the past year Mr. C. M. Weed, of the class of '83, has worked in my department, studying for the master's degree. He not only did hard, earnest work in economic entomology, but studied the morphology of insects. He also devoted considerable time to histology. Mr. Weed prepared a thesis on the food habits of young birds, toads, and frogs, a field in which little has been done. This thesis, which has been much praised by competent authorities, and extensively quoted in many of our agricultural papers, is published in full in the report of the State Board of Agriculture for 1883. Other valuable, research by Mr. Weed is also reported in the same volume.

Mr. James Troop, class of '78, also did some work in my department, preparatory to teaching entomology at Purdue University. Mr. Troop discovered a new insect pest, Otiorhynchus ligneus, Olio, which has long been known as a common insect here, but which has been previously considered as innoxious. Mr. Troop discovered this "strawberry crown girdler"-which name describes the insects new habits-to be a serious pest in the strawberry beds about Lansing. Mr. Troop worked out the natural history and habits of this new enemy in our entomological laboratory.

SUGGESTIONS.

Our museum is becoming of great value as an aid in giving instruction in the department. We greatly need a complete faunal collection, especially of the birds of Michigan. More models, especially of the lower, or invertebrate animals, would also be a very valuable acquisition. A large apiary, when all the operations necessary in a large bee-yard could be separately performed by

each student, would be greatly appreciated by many of our students, and would certainly increase the attendance at the College. Such an apiary would permit more manual work, which is much sought after by some of our students. Such an enlargement, though it would require a special assistant, would not be expensive, as it would be more than self supporting, and it would give added value to the instruction in this department.

COLLEGE WORK ASIDE FROM INSTRUCTION.

During the year I gave one lecture before the students, on Sugar, and another one on the Physiological Effects of Alcohol, by special request of the students, the most of whom were present.

I have given all the time I could spare to enlarging the museum and making it more valuable and instructive. I have also had to give considerable time to the aipary. This year, and also last, my assistant-a student who works only three hours a day-was called away just in the busiest season. This made it necessary for me to give all the possible strength and time at my disposal to the apiary. Such a necessity would be avoided by the contemplated enlargement of the apiary.

I have the past year conducted a Bible class in the Sabbath-school, for the most of the time, and have prepared several papers to be read before the College Natural History Society. I was also one of the editors of the Speculum.

RESEARCH AND EXPERIMENT.

During the past year I have had more than the usual number of inquiries in reference to insects. Several new insect pests have appeared in our State, and the unprecedented abundance of bark and plant lice brought a flood of letters upon me. So far as time and opportunity would permit I have studied out the habits of these new enemies, and have investigated in reference to insecticides, and other means to prevent insect ravages. The result of these investigations have been given in the report of the State Board for 1883.

In Cornell University there are six professors covering the same department of instruction which I represent here. Besides such a wide range of instruction—and that too in sciences which are growing with wonderful strides I have charge of our museum and the apiary. Add to this a correspondence which often brings from a dozen to twenty letters of inquiry per day, and it becomes more than evident that more work ought to be done in experimental entomology than it is possible for me to do. More such work, I am sure, would please the farmers and help the College. But to increase such research and experiment demands more assistance in the department, or less teaching and responsibility upon the professor. It is well worth consideration, whether the time is not ripe for more assistance in the department.

THE APIARY.

During the past winter our bees, which were wintered in the cellar, came through, as usual, without loss. This again shows that a good cellar is the most desirable place in which to winter bees. Of the colonies wintered out doors, one-half were lost. These experiments-now continued many yearsshow that a cellar is not only much the safest place in which to winter bees, but that bees thus wintered consume not more than one third the amount of honey consumed by those wintered out-doors, even though the latter are in chaff hives, or well packed. The coming winter we shall winter wholly in the cellar.

HONEY dew.

In Michigan, as well as in contiguous States, the bees have gathered during the past season largely of a kind of nectar often called honey dew, but which is a secretion from bark lice. This has greatly injured the quality of the early honey, and has often filled the hives with a dark, ill-flavored kind of sweet, which as I have shown is unfit for market and for winter food for the bees.

Our experiments the past season show that as much honey can be secured in small as in large sections, but we have not been able to get our sections evenly filled and capped without separators.

The past season has been the poorest ever known in this vicinity. Except for a week in the early clover bloom we have really secured no honey at all. We supposed that the cold and the drought were equal factors in this honey dearth; but the fact that at Owosso, only twenty-eight miles from here, the honey crop has been very large makes this improbable. Of course the season has been as cold at Owosso as at Lansing; but at Owosso they have had frequent and copious rains. Thus it is proved that the drought is far more inimical to nectar secretion than is the cold. In most parts of the State, the drought has been severe, so that the honey crop is generally very poor.

OUTSIDE WORK.

During the year I attended and addressed the North American Bee Keepers' Association, at its annual meeting at Toronto. I also attended the annual meeting of the State Horticultural Society at Ann Arbor, and the summer meeting of the same society at Bay City, at both of which meetings I presented papers on insects destructive to fruit. I also attended and addressed the State Bee Keepers' Association at its annual meeting in Flint. I was President of this association.

I attended and gave two lectures before each of the Farmers' Institutes held at Otsego and Caro.

During the summer, I was called twice to Bay City where I studied the natural history, work, and means to destroy the "black army worm," Agrotis fennica, a new and terrible insect pest which has been described by me in the Report of the Board for 1883.

I have also been employed by the Department of Agriculture to prepare an Apiarian Exhibit for the New Orleans Exposition.

The above work, together with the immense correspondence which my professorship of entomology has brought upon me, together with the reading and study which my position demands,-which I regret to say has been too much crowded out by the press of duties, has entirely filled my time and often made me wish for more time and strength.

DONATIONS TO ZOOLOGICAL DEPARTMent.

Rev. Arthur Peebles:

Two specimens copper ore, three specimens silver ore, eight specimens minerals, thirty specimens mineral ore.

Chas. McCurdy:

Two Indian knives.

Former Student:

Copper Indian knife.

Herbert Bamber:

Fifty one specimen shells.

Frank Woodmansee:

Indian ax, Indian totum.

J. H. Thornburg:

Five lead bullets from Chattanooga, Indian arrow head, exploded shell, iron ore, travertin, quartz sandstone, quartz crystals.

I herewith present my report for the year closing September 30th, 1884. This report is unusually brief, for several reasons, among which is the fact that former reports have covered ground which it seems hardly necessary to go over again.

TEACHING BOTANY.

In the autumn term forty-seven Sophomores were instructed in systematic

botany. They met in two sections, every other day, for lectures, recitations, or laboratory work.

In the spring term five hours every day, and for a portion of the time six hours, were given to teaching the Sophomores and a class of Seniors in physiological botany. Throughout this term each student was supplied with a compound microscope and accessories, valued for each about fifty dollars. These sections often contained twenty persons each, a number too large for any one person to instruct satisfactorily.

During the summer term the freshmen, in two sections, devoted an hour a day to class-room work in beginning botonay.

In each term, I have had a few special students who required extra time out of the classes above mentioned. Among these were J. R. Shelton, class of 1882, C. W. McCurdy, class of 1881, and James Troop, for three years assistant in botany and horticulture.

THE BOTANIC GARDEN.

My last report contained a very full account of the garden, and included a map showing the arrangements of the plants. Considerable improvement has been made during the past year in enriching the soil, raising certain low places, adding gravel to the paths, the introduction of more plants. Among the interesting things were ten or fifteen sorts of aquatic plants, some of which are very fine. Two tubers of Nelumbium speciosum, the sacred lotus of Egypt, were introduced into the rich mud of the lower pond. They have spread rapidly and sent out quite a number of flowers. This wonderful aquatic plant has produced leaves over two feet in diameter, and delicate pink flowers ten inches in diameter. The flowers are in shape much like a tulip, and are very fragrant, often attracting half a dozen or more bees to each flower.

Although the plant is from the tropics, it is perfectly hardy in mud which does not freeze, and is much more vigorous and prolific of flowers than our native lotus. There is no reason why they should not be introduced into any of our native ponds where the bottom is soft and rich and where the surface is not too much exposed to strong winds. Several other species of less general interest have adorned our ponds.

Current numbers of the "College Speculum " contain full accounts of some of the most interesting features of the garden. It is not uncommon to hear visitors remark that this garden interests them more than anything else at the College, and yet it is small and costs but little.

THE ARBORETUM.

This has done better than last year, though there have been many kinds of insects and some injurious fungi. The printed labels have all been finished and set in place. In this plat of trees, some of which are twelve or more years old, we have something which is continually growing more and more valuable. One intelligent visitor said he never learned so much about forestry in any two hours as he did in our arboretum.

THE HERBARIUM.

This has been increased by a donation of 2,500 European species from the Botanic Garden of Harvard University, also by our own collection of wild plants found in this neighborhood.