S4 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



of his duties and has handled Hie leanis and men in a very satisfactory 

 manner. Owing to the small force available for supervising the after- 

 noon work of the students, it has been necessary to utilize him for this 

 purpose during much of the year, and as the position of foreman has now 

 been abolished, it will make the task of conducting the student labor 

 all the more diflBcult. 



In addition to performing the regular work upon the gardens, grounds 

 and orchards, the teams were employed for several weeks during the 

 fall in making a road to the railroad station at Trowbridge, the former 

 road having been utilized for the College spur track, and in making the 

 drives upon Oakwood addition. 



A large amount of work, also, was done in excavating for the new 

 Women's Building, and in hauling brick, lumber, lime and broken stone 

 for the contractor. The hauling of wood, coal and furniture, and dray- 

 age for the different departments, has taken no little time, while the 

 filling of the ice house and the making of paths in the winter, and the 

 delivering of ice in the summer, also fall to this department. 



L. R. TAFT, 



I^rofessor of Horticulture and Landscajye Gardenind 

 and Superintendent of Jlorticidtural Department. 



Agricultural College, Mich., 

 Jum 30, 1900. 



DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY. 



President J. L. Snyder: 



Sir — We herewith submit the report of the Chemical Department for 

 the College year closing. June 30, 1900: 



The year has been full of work, both in the class room and in the 

 laboratory; the classes have been large, and the interest of the stu- 

 dents has been unflagging; the perplexing condition has been to find 

 table room in the laboratory for all who wanted to take w'ork in chemi- 

 cal manipulation and making chemical investigations. The classes are 

 now so large that many of them must be divided into sections in order 

 to find space for work in the laboratory. With the large prospective 

 increase in numbers of students in the higher classes, the question of 

 room for the workers in chemistry becomes one of anxiety. When this 

 laboratory was built in 1871 it was supposed to be ample for any future 

 increase. But the normal cry of growth and expansion is now heard — 

 "the place is too strait for me; give place to me that I may dwell." 

 The laboratory space that was for a time surrendered to the Physical 

 Department will soon be required for the use of our growing classes. 



