REPORT OF THE PROFESSOR OF AGRICULTURE. 33 



[The report on Experiment Station work and bulletins of the Farm 

 Department which here followed has been omitted from this place and will 

 be found in the Experiment Station report later on in this volume. — H. G. 

 R., Sec'y.] 



NO PUBLIC SALE IN 1889. 



The public cattle sale was not held this year, the Board deeming it not 

 advisable on account of the depression in prices and lack of demand for 

 breeding stock. 



We have made but few private sales and the receipts from this, the 

 largest source of income from the farm, have been very small compared with 

 former years. For this reason the total receipts of the department fall 

 much below those of any former years of recent date. 



DONATIONS. 



The following donations have been received by the Farm Department 

 during the year: One Holstein steer from Hon. M. L. Sweet, Grand 

 Rapids; two varieties of seed potatoes from S. Frogner, Herman, Minn.; 

 one barrel of Monroe seedling potatoes from International Seed Company, 

 Rochester, N. Y. ; package of Cleveland's Colossal Corn from A. B. Cleve- 

 land & Co., New York; one car extra early field corn, " Minnesota King," 

 from Northrup, Braslaw & Goodwin, Minneapolis, Minn.; one-half bushel 

 Texas Red Oats from A. P. Coddington, Tecumseh, Mich. ; Black Barley 

 from D. H. Talbot, Sioux City, la.; attachment to Aspinwall Potato Planter 

 for planting ensilage corn, from Aspinwall Manufacturing Company, Three 

 Rivers, Mich. 



AGRICULTURAL LABORATORY. 



In my last report I referred to the fact that the Farm Department was 

 the only one that did not have a building especially arranged and equipped 

 for its work and suggested that such a building should be the next for which 

 legislative appropriation was asked. 



In the fall of 1883 I was requested to draw a plan of such a building as I 

 thought was needed. I made such plans and $8,000 was placed by the Board 

 of Agriculture in the estimates submitted to the Legislature, a majority of 

 the members voting therefor. 



The following resolution indorsing this action of the Board was passed by 

 the Michigan Short Horn Breeders' Association : 



Resolved, That this association is of the opinion that the Agricultural 

 Department of the State Agricultural College is at a disadvantage in carry- 

 ing on the work assigned to it, owing to a lack of a proper building, and 

 that it asks the Legislature of the State at its next session to appropriate 

 the sum of at least $8,000 for the erection of such a building, thus placing it 

 more on an equality with the other Departments of the College. 



The following resolutions adopted by the executive committee of the State 

 Agricultural Society state what other associations indorsed such action: 



Whereas, Large appropriations have been made by former Legislatures 

 of this State to provide ample accommodations for the Chemical, Botanical, 

 5 



