DEPARTMENT KEPORTS. 27 



Sec. 2. Their duty shall be to examine the accounts of the steward and 

 report to the club at the middle and end of each college term. 



Article XII. — Section 1. Each member of the association shall be required 

 to deposit twenty dollars ($20.00) at the beginning of each term with the 

 treasurer, and will be admitted to the club only on presentation of this receipt 

 to the steward of his club. 



Sec. 2. The steward of any club is forbidden to allow members to remain in 

 his club unless they keep deposited with the treasurer to their club's credit, the 

 price of one week's board in advance. 



Article XIII. — Clubs shall be in running order the day preceding the 

 opening of each term. ^ 



Article XIV. — Amendments to this constitution may be made at any time 

 by a majority vote of the association. 



military. 



But little is to be added to what was reported last year, report 1881-2, page 

 33. All the arms and accoutrements on deposit at the college were recalled 

 by the Quartermaster General of the State and were returned to him. As he 

 expressed a doubt of his authority to deposit arms at this place, the Legisla- 

 ture of 1883 passed the following enactment No. 105, public acts of 1883, 

 approved June 6, 1883 : 



An act to authorize the Quartermaster General to deposit arms and accoutre- 

 ments at the Agricultural College. 



Section 1. The People of the State of Michigan enact, That the Quarter- 

 master General be authorized, with the advice and consent of the Military 

 Board, to deposit with the State Board of Agriculture, at the Agricultural 

 College, arms and accoutrements for the use of said college. 



Ordered to take immediate effect. 



SIGNAL service STATION. 



In the autumn of 1882 I was appointed, with Dr. Kedzie, a committee to 

 confer with the Signal Service Bureau at Washington, regarding a signal ser- 

 vice station at the college for the benefit of the farming community. The 

 committee was appointed at the request of Gov. Jerome, with a view to State 

 aid if it should be requisite. My part of the work of the committee was sec- 

 ondary to that of Dr. Kedzie, and I refer to his report of the chemical depart- 

 ment, for further information regarding the matter. Nothing was done in 

 1883, but in the winter of 1883-4 Col. Wm. B. McCreery, member of the Board, 

 was directed by the Board to represent the desirability of the establishment of 

 such a station to the authorities at Washington. And now while revising these 

 sheets for the press, Feb., 1884, comes the word officially that Brigadier General 

 W. B. Hazen, chief signal officer, has determined to establish such a station 

 at this college, if the needed appropriations for his department are made to it. 



The assistant chemistof the college is in communication with the telegraphic 

 world, through lines, batteries, and instruments of his, in his office in the 

 chemical laboratory, all of which as well as the use of meteorological instru- 

 ments, he proposes to put to the service of the signal service. Dr. Kedzie has 

 long thought it worth the trying, to see if some ways can not be devised to 

 bestow on farming communities the same kinds of service which the signal 

 service extends so beneficially to commerce. Should the station be established 

 here, the Board of Agriculture will, I suppose, make the department under 

 Dr. Kedzie, the medium of the connection of the station and the college. 



