126 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



In coininentiiig' on onr increased enrollment of stndents working for 

 the D. y. M. degree, it is opportune to call attention to the changes 

 that have occurred since my last report both as regards entrance re- 

 quirements and length of courses in veterinaiy colleges throughout the 

 United States. I have previously mentioned how the Michigan Agri- 

 cultural College, alone of all veterinary colleges east of the Mississippi 

 River, has striven to maintain a four year course of instruction upon 

 a preliminary requirement of high school graduation and how this single- 

 handed effort has contributed to the slow but none-the-less gradual in- 

 crease in our enrollment ; a feature, however, that has brought forth a 

 finished product manifesting both ability and efifiiciency in the competitive 

 field of the veterinarj^ profession. Beginning September last or on an- 

 nounced intention to inaugurate the new order at the opening of the 

 approaching year, all state colleges are or have under contemplation 

 the adoption of the four year course with fifteen high school units en- 

 trance requirement. It is certainly gratifying to thus see the realization 

 and stability of our earlier convictions that the time necessary for a 

 balanced veterinary school curriculum without four full college years 

 lacked opportunity for adequate instruction. This universal adoption 

 of a four year standard with courses constantly demanding recognition 

 is, we firmly believe, but a mile-stone to the ultimate establishment of 

 six years of collegiate work for the veterinary degree, as has been the 

 evolutionary progress of the past twenty-five years from only two short 

 years of but six months each. 



Another fact of the past year that should not be regarded too lightly 

 is the pronouncement of the United States Department of Agriculture 

 that henceforth veterinarians for eligibility for government employment 

 must have attended at least four full years of veterinary study and so 

 gained their diploma. This plainly bespeaks the early elimination of 

 the private veterinary schools and hence increased responsibilities upon 

 state colleges for furnishing the necessary practitioners to meet the 

 ever increasing demands of animal husbandry. 



Several changes in the division personnel developed during the past 

 year: Dr. J. S. McDaniel, responding to a call from his Alma Mater, 

 left us at the close of 1916 to take up veterinary extension work in 

 Missouri. The place thus vacated was filled through the engagement 

 of Dr. James William Benner, graduate of the Veterinary Division, 

 Kansas State iVgricultural College, as Assistant Professor of Veterinary 

 Medicine and Pharmacology. Dr. McDaniel had been connected with this 

 institution since 1911 and was an agreeable as well as efficient colleagur. 



Dr. J. P. Hutton resigned as Assistant Professor of Surgery and 

 Clinic at the beginning of the new year to accept a comniercial position 

 in an adjoining state. His place was ably filled for the remainder of the 

 college year by Dr. J. I. Haudley, a graduate of Alabama Polytechnic 

 Institute, Veterinary Department ; it is, however, gratifying to note that 

 Dr. Hutton has been prevailed upon to reassume his work at this institu- 

 tion, returning August 1, as Associate Professor of Surgery and Clinic, 

 thus assuming charge of the newly created department added to the or- 

 ganization of the Veterinary division. 



As it became essential to supply additional help for Dr. F. W. Chamber- 

 lain incidental to work in both gross and microscopic anatomy, Mr. W. S. 

 Robbins, formerly with the Department of Animal Pathology, was 



