64 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



M I LITARY DEPARTMENT. 



Hon. J. L. Snyder, President: 



Sir — I have the honor to submit my report of the Military Department 

 for the year ending June 30, 1902. 



The work has been carried on on the same lines as that of the previous 

 year, the model being the system pursued in the regular service. A marked 

 improvement has been shown in the discipline and deportment as well as 

 in the dress of the cadets ; there is also a great desire among them to obtain 

 the positions of officers and non-commissioned officers, showing that the 

 work of the department is becoming more popular. Four additional second 

 lieutenants were appointed this year from the senior class with a view 

 in their being made captains in their senior year. It is believed this will 

 greatly help the work, as heretofore new officers have been made each 

 year, who have not had the necessary experience to enable them to fully 

 do their work. 



I again request that the faculty allow more time for the course — three 

 hours a week being entirely insufficient — also that the hour for class work 

 with the sophomores docs not conflict with the drill hour during the 

 winter term. 



It gives me pleasure to report the good conduct of the freshmen class, 

 whose gentlemanly behavior has been all that I could desire; I can also 

 say this of the great majority of the corps. 



The officers who graduate this year are a fine manly lot of young men 

 who are fully competent to fill the position of second lieutenant of volun- 

 teers, if the country should ever need their services. The attention of the 

 Board is again invited to the necessity of a complete separation of the 

 Athletic from the Military Department. The new ground has greatly 

 aided me in my work, and a proper drill shed, in which the whole battalion 

 could be handled, would do more for my department and the College than 

 anything I can suggest. 



Verv respectfullv, 



C. A. VERNOU, 

 Major U. 8. Army. 

 Agricultural College, Mich., 

 June -W, 1902. 



