REPORT OP HORTICULTURAL DEPARTMENT. 29 



other articles that are used as means of illustration. The students work 

 showed twenty drawings of the more troublesome fungous diseases studied 

 by them, ten illustrating different methods of building growing and forc- 

 ing houses, and ten others showing the different methods of propagating 

 plants. In each case the enlarged details were shown and the drawings 

 could be readily understood from the copious foot-notes affixed to them. 

 The drawings were eighteen by twenty-four inches and were arranged 

 behind glass, in swinging frames. A variety of methods of propagating 

 plants were also shown, by actual samples of grafts, buds and cuttings, 

 displayed in glass jars in preservative fluids. There was also exhibited a 

 collection of the more valuable insecticides and fungicides, carefully 

 labeled so as to show the ingredients of each, while in smaller bottles, 

 grouped around the others, were the materials in the actual quantities 

 required. A collection of plaster models of potatoes, molded and colored 

 by students was also shown, as well as about one hundred and fifty varie- 

 ties of garden vegetable seeds, most of which were growji and put up by the 

 students. Bound volumes of the examination papers of the three upper 

 classes, were also shown. 



To the cooperative exhibit of Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Sta- 

 tions, we also contributed a set of drawings illustrating greenhouse construc- 

 tion, and a set of photographs showing the equipment of the department 

 and the students engaged in various kinds of laboratory and manual 

 labor. 



The exhibit which attracted most attention, however, was the collection 

 of wax fruits and vegetables, shown in the Horticultural Hall. It con- 

 sisted of about eight hundred pieces, and the specimens had so natural an 

 appearance that, although plainly so labeled, many who saw them were 

 with difficulty convinced that they were artificial. They were made by 

 Mrs. Stanley Potter of South Haven, the fruits being modeled from speci- 

 mens grown upon the sub-station grounds or that were kindly contributed 

 by friends along the " lake shore," while most of the vegetables were sent 

 from the College. 



IMPROVEMENTS. 



By means of the appropriation of $8,500 made by the last legislature, we 

 were enabled to put down nearly two miles of artificial stone walks, of 

 widths ranging from three to six feet, with an average of about three feet 

 and nine inches. Every important building can now be reached in a fairly 

 direct manner from nearly all points upon the grounds, without leaving 

 the walk. It is hoped that there will be fewer " sheep paths" across the 

 lawns now that we have the stone walks. The work was done by the 

 Cleveland Silex Stone Co., of Detroit, in a painstaking manner, and it is 

 hoped that they will prove durable. The appropriation was not sufficient 

 for constructing all that are needed (the original estimate having been cut 

 down five-hundred dollars by the legislature), although a considerable 

 amount was obtained by the work of the department men and teams, 

 drawing gravel, grading, etc., and it is hoped that the system can be, in 

 the near future, completed. 



Among the other improvements may be noted the grading, sodding, 

 planting and the laying out of walks and drives to the new buildings, the 

 rebuilding of the dam in Cedar river to provide a sufficient supply of 

 water for fire purposes, and a quiet pond from which a supply of ice could 



