DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 39 



appointed a committee to make recommendations regarding such a depart- 

 ment, and I refer to Prof, Carpenter's report for an account of their work. 



Ic is proper to say that it is not the purpose of the Board to establish a 

 department holding a rank coordinate with Mgriculture, so that one can take 

 his choice between mechanics and agriculture, but to make tiie department of 

 Mechanics subordinate to tlie agricultural character of the institution, and to 

 make the instruction in the mechanical department a part of the course in 

 agriculture. 



THE LIBRARY. 



The library belongs to every department of instruction. The books have 

 been placed in tlie new Library and Museum building, and arranged by sub- 

 jects in tlie alcoves. The periodicals are handily placed for study. The read- 

 ing room has been lately adorned by an oil painting, life size, of the President 

 of the Board of Agriculture, the Hon. H. G. VVidls, of Kalamazoo. Judge 

 Wells has acted as virtual or actual President of the Boai'd since its creation 

 in 1861, and much of the present prosperity of the College is owing to his 

 wisdom and untiring efforts. He has spared no time nor pains in serving the 

 College, and we are all grateful to him for thjs gift of his ld<eness, and wish 

 the time may be far distant when he shall cense to preside, as he has done for 

 the last twenty-one years, at the ses-sions of the Botird. 



The College needs a librarian. The scientific works, to which the profes- 

 sors refer in their lectures, should no longer be drawn from the library to the 

 rooms of students, where but one or two can use them, at the time when ref- 

 erence is made to them, but the library should be kept open during the hours 

 when students study, and these books kept in for their use. 



There are probably twenty-life scientific journals coming to the library, and 

 many magazines filled with interesting matter. These periodicals need to be 

 indexed as they are received. Half tlie value of a library is lo.'^t if it be not 

 well indexed. The daily attention to the library, the indexing its contents, 

 and the furnishing of aid to those who make use of it, so as to economize 

 their time, is work enough for the full time of one man. We are now, 

 by the lack of such service, behind the University, and all libraries of high 

 standing. 



THE LABOR SYSTEM. 



The labor system has remained the same substantially as it wns organized 

 in 18G1. Students have, since the opening of the College in iS77, labored, 

 three hours a day. It is a requirement of the organic law of the College. 



The Sophomores work their entire year in the Farm Department. The 

 Juniors work their year in the Horticultural Depaitmont. It was intended by 

 this arrangement to give students in these classes an opportunity to see a 

 year's work consecutively carried out in each depaitment, to invite them to 

 understand the year's plans, and to have them have a hand in carrying them 

 out. If the lessons in agriculture were given in the S •photnore year, the 

 lectures and the work would both be rendered more oilucational. It is worth 

 inquiring if some such an arrangement cannot bo made. Or. one hour a week 

 might be given to the professors of agricnituie and horticulture in which to 

 meet the classes that work in their departments, and tn descrihe the opera- 

 tions going on. Perhaps some [ilan may be devised by which the woik in the 

 departments for these two years might be cl.issitied, and each stu lent be 

 obliged to show some proficiency and understauJing of each kind of woik — 



