DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 



PKESIDENT'S EEPOKT. 



Michigan State Agricultural College, \ 



Sept. 30, 1883. j 

 To the Staie Board of Agriculture : 



I respectfully submit the following report of the condition of the State 

 Agricultural College, and the reports of the officers in charge of the several 

 departments, giving altogether an accouat of what has been done from Sept. 

 1, 1880, to Sept. 30, 1883, being two years known as the year 1881-2 and the 

 year 1882-3. The report will be mostly occupied with an account of things 

 up to August 30 only, as on Sept. 30 the first term of a new year is but begnn^ 



REPORTS. 



Up to and including 1880, the college has published an annual report. The 

 reports for the years 1857 to 1860 are to be found in the reports of the Super- 

 intendent of Public Instrnction. In 1861 tliere was no report separate from 

 that of 1862. The reports for 1863 and 1863 are to be found in the Joint 

 Documents of the State for those years. From 1864 to 1880 inclusive, the 

 college published a report annually in the form of a separate bound volume. 

 The college has published a catalogue annually, being, sometimes, up to 1861 

 but lists of names. A catalogue in the form of a pamphlet for distribution 

 ■was published each year from 1861 to 1879 inclusive. All the classes after 

 that time having entered college in September, catalogues have been issued 

 for 1880-81, 1881-2. The last named is the twenty-fifth annual catalogue. 

 Twenty-five full college years should have closed in the autumn of 1881, but 

 for a change in the beginning of the college school year made subsequently 

 to the loss of the first dormitory by fire in Dec, 1876. Triennial catalogues 

 of the officers and alumni have been published in 1876, 1879, and the last in 

 season to be ready for the seventh triennial reunion of the alumni, in 1882. 

 Massachusetts, Illinois, and several other states embody the catalogues of 

 officers and students in the reports. This college has but rarely duplicated in 

 the reports the matter of the catalogue. 



biennial reports. 



The last session of the Legislature of the State, in an act No. 206, 1881, to 

 provide for the uniform regulation of certain state institutions, provides for 

 the publication of a biennial report only. A manuscript report also is to be 

 made annually to the Superintendent of Public Instruction. The same enact- 

 ment changed the date of the close of our fiscal year from August 31 to Sep- 

 tember 30. 



