56 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



REPORT OF THE DEAN OF SPECIAL COURSES. 



President J. L. Snyder: 



The attendance at the special courses during the winter of 1901-1902 

 was as follows: 



Sugar beet course 25 



Live stock 24 



Creamery 24 



Cheese 16 



Fruit 5 



Total 04 



The course in beet sugar production was much amplified this season. 

 In the first place the chemical side of the instruction was unified and 

 enlarged. Next, the Lansing sugar factory was completed and the owners 

 were kind enough to allow our students the use of their most excellent 

 plant as a laboratory for teaching the arrangement of the machinery and 

 the function of each piece of the costly apparatus. The thanks of the 

 College are due the management of the factory for their generosity in the 

 matter. This practical work in the factory, the opportunity to study 

 pipes, tanks, batteries, multiple effects, strike pan and all other parts of a 

 working sugar factory has been a. great help to our students. They leave 

 us ready to take up practical every day work in a factory without the 

 danger incident to going into an immense establishment totally ignorant 

 of the working parts. 



A change will be made next year in the matter of the teaching of the 

 agricultural work of the course. When young men come to this course 

 from the farm it is quite possible to give them intelligent training in 

 matters connected with the raising of beets, but when they come here 

 from the city, without training in the fundamental operations of farming, 

 any attempt to give them intelligent methods of beet growing can but be 

 farcical. Hereafter therefore the course should provide for a division of 

 Ihe class as to this work. 



I am glad to report that the call for our graduates keeps acute and 

 • •very man will be satisfactorily placed before the beginning of the next 

 campaign. 



The live stock and creamery courses were fairly well attended. The 

 cost of The creamery course was much reduced because the farm depart- 

 ment had in operation a regular factory and the students were allowed to 

 manage the creamery during the continuance of the course, thus dispensing 

 with the necessity of buying the milk for this especial purpose. 



No radical changes in management were introduced this year. The 

 cheese men were trained by Mr. Michels and were well pleased with the 

 work. We have secured a satisfactory place for each of Hie members of 

 the class. 



