DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 



37 



My faith in the system of student labor, which has been, a distinctive feature 

 of the Michigan State Agricultural College from its organization, is unabated. 

 Our students believe in it. Our graduates come to feel its value in fashioning 

 habit and sympathy in right directions more and more as they engage in the 

 active work of life on the farm or elsewhere. Our patrons regard it as one of 

 the main inducements that decides them to send their sons to this College. 

 With the President of the College and the successive members of the State 

 Board of Agriculture it has always been a cherished idea. Our legislators, 

 however much they may object to other items in appropriation bills, never 

 object to that which provides for payment of student labor. The Faculty 

 generally approve. And so while we would not overlook or depreciate the 

 difficulties that beset its practical management (and which have caused so 

 many industrial Colleges to discard it), we would urge to united effort to give 

 student labor the prominence it deserves in an Agricultural College course. 



STOCK. 



There have been no purchases of stock during the year except a very fine 

 Merino ram from the flock of Hon. John T. Kich, of Lapeer. Flocks and 

 herds have been in excellent health. The poorer specimens have been weeded 

 out and our stock has made marked improvement. Our sales of stock 

 amounts to $3,600 for the time covered by this report. I append a table of 

 weights of cattle and the summary of the milk record for '82 and '83. 



Two of our farm teams will need to be replaced at no distant day. I renew 

 a recommendation made in a former report "that it seems desirable to place 

 a pair of Percheron mares on the farm." 



CHOPPING LIST, 1883. 



Crop. 



( Wheat and } 

 { experiments. ) 



Pasture. 



Hay. 



Corn and roots. 



Pasture. 



Corn, 



Hay. 



Oats. 



Wheat. 



Pasture. 



Pasture. 



Hay. 



Pasture. 



Quantity. 



260 bii. 



43.417 tons. 



324.64 bu. corn 

 832 bu. roots. 



255,3 bu. 

 53.339 tons. 

 1340 bu. 

 349 bu. 



7.22 tons. 



Remarks. 



f 10 acres of No. 3 

 J devoted to exper- 



iments. Egypt- 



(^ ian wheat. 



^ Only a pai't of the 

 \ corn was husked. 



Corn frosted ; only 

 part of it husked. 



The cost embraces 

 70 loads of manure 

 at 50 cts. per load. 

 Clawson. 



The season has in some respects been an unpropitious one for the husband- 

 man. The excessive rains followed by drouth and early frosts have made 

 the corn crop nearer a failure than ever before in the history of our State. 



