DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 53 



operations and facts about the farm. A part of the class is made up 

 of boy3 born in the village or city and entirely unacquainted, as far as 

 experience goes, with the methods of sowing and cultivating our most 

 common cereals. I suggest that hereafter we be allowed to so divide the 

 class as :o bring these young men, as far as possible, into one section, 

 that the remainder of the class may not be retarded in their progress. 



The instruction iD bee-keeping was given by Mr. J. M. Kankin. It 

 was satisfactory in every way and aroused enthusiasm among students, 

 as well as fitting them for the care of an apiary on their own farms. 



TEACHING FORCE. 



The sole change in the teaching force of the department during the 

 year covered by this report has been the departure of Mr. Ernest Witt- 

 stock and the appointment of Mr. Charles H. Alvord of the class of 

 1895, as his successor as foreman of the farm. Mr. Wittstock was ap- 

 pointed foreman in the spring of 1893 and has performed the arduous 

 and very trying duties connected with the immediate management of 

 the College farm from that time to the date of his leaving the College, 

 most faithfully and acceptably. The foreman has charge of the teams 

 and the workmen upon the farm, and in the past has confined himself 

 to the duty of carrying out the general plan of the head of the de- 

 partment in the matter of farm work. Beginning with the spring term 

 of 3 898 the foreman has, in addition to the management of the farm 

 v^ork, the further duty of aiding in the instruction of the freshmen and 

 sophomores in farm crops and farm management generally. 



As stated in my last report, the work is being specialized as far as 

 possible. Prof. Mumford has been giving the instruction in live stock, 

 and has had the immediate control of the stock on the farm for two 

 years. Recognizing this fact, the board has changed his title to Assistant 

 Professor of Animal Husbandry. Prof. A. A. Crozier, while nominally 

 connected with the Experiment Station, only, had given in the previous 

 year the lectures on soils and part of the instruction on farm crops. 

 Owing to continued ill health he was obliged to be absent from the 

 college a large part of the time in both the fall and spring terms, and 

 finally severed his connection with the institution in June, 1898. The 

 work with soils devolved upon Mr. Fulton, and with farm crops upon the 

 head of the department. 



COLLEGE HERD. 



One important change was made in the College herd -during the year. 

 Heretofore none but full blood cattle, registered in the proper herd 

 books, have been kept on the farm. Because of the abundance of stock 

 feed on hand and because it was desired to know whether a profit could 

 be made from a dairy herd at the market prices of cattle foods on the one 

 hand and of dairy products on the other, a grade dairy herd of thirty 

 cows was purchased in September and October. 1897. The cows were 

 picked op in various counties in the same way that a private dairyman 

 would purchase his cows when wanted. A new barn, forty feet wide by 

 seventy long, was built for the use of this herd. The total cost of 

 the herd including expenses of purchase and transportation to the College 



