DEPARTMENT REPORTS; 31 



tographs of tlie College taken after it was opened to students in 1857, and 

 which Mrs. Williams, the wife of the first President, kindly presented to me. 

 Stumps were standing close up to tiie doors of the three buildings, tiie only ones 

 then erected, and a rail fence a few rods from the buildings separated the logs 

 and stumjis inside from the forest and tamarack swamp outside. One should 

 see, too, tiie drain-map of the farm, constructed by Professor Carpenter, and 

 showing more than ten miles of tile drainage, done almost wholly by students. 



The farm is neither a rich one, nor a poor one. There are in the State many 

 districts better adapted to wheat than ours, as there are sections not so subject 

 to drouth and frost. The farm has a great variety of soil. As you enter the 

 grounds from the west you ascend a hill, having the Red Cedar river beneath a 

 steep and curved bank on your right. This hill is stiff clay, and has been 

 taken for pear and cherry trees. Where the river bears to the right from the 

 drive we have alluvial soil, and about the buildings light sandy loam or sand, — 

 the College buildings standing in an old grove of oaks with now and then a 

 tulip tree. We have clay loam, and light peaty loam, and peat. The farm 

 was selected in view of this variety of soil. The park of some eighty acres, the 

 orchard, and field No. 1 of five acres, are in charge of the Horticultural Depart- 

 ment. The rest of the land is in charge of the Farm Department. Six fields 

 of about twenty-five acres each are in the College rotation of crops, called the 

 College rotation, as being peculiarly adapted to this farm, and to a farm 

 worked by students. It is not planned with special reference to wheat. Corn 

 is followed by roots, then oats, tlien wheat, then clover, then clover again. A 

 yearly report of the management of the farm is published in the reports of the 

 Secretary of the Board of Agriculture. As the farm was not designed to waste 

 money, so neither was it designed to earn money for the State. The first use 

 of it is to afford labor to students, to teach them how to work, and to keep 

 them in the practice, and love of hard daily, systematic manual labor. So far 

 as time and means are given, it serves as an experimental station. It serves as 

 a means of illustration of the kinds and of the growth of crops, methods of 

 cultivation, and experimenting. 



The stock on the farm was designed to furnish good specimens of the various 

 prominent breeds, so that students should become familiar with them, their 

 peculiarities, habits, and value. Students often receive lectures in the barns 

 and yards. The keeping of bulls of different breeds is costly, and there has at 

 times been talk of dispensing with males of all but one or two breeds, and 

 keeping specimens of females only, for study. It would, I believe, suit Pro- 

 fessor Ingersoll better to keep both male and female of each prominent breed, 

 but not to keep a herd of any but perhaps Shorthorns and Ayrshires. 



The College in 1863 purchased a bull and two heifers of Shorthorns and of 

 Devons, and Mr. J. B. Crippen of Cold water gave a Shorthorn heifer. In 1864 

 a bull and heifer of the Ayrshire breed were purchased. Galloways and Jerseys 

 were subsequently added to the stock. Males and females of tliese breeds, and 

 a female Hereford are now at the College. We have Southdown, Cotswold, 

 Spanish Merino, and Black-faced Highland sheep, and Essex, Suffolk, Berk- 

 shire and Poland-China swine. The College has from time to time been the 

 recipient of valuable presents of stock. The Devon bull Batavia was given to 

 the College by R. G. Hart, of Lapeer, the Jersey bull Saginaw by Dr. J. S. 

 Curtis of Bridgeport, Saginaw county. 



The donation of sheep, swine, and implements to the farm department have 

 been numerous and valuable. 



