DEPARTMENT REPORTS 25 



Other infoiiuatiou coiiceininjj; the College may be found in the various 

 department reports in the following pages. 



Respectfully submitted^, 



J. L. SNYDER. 

 Agricultuual College, Mich., President. 



June 30, 1899. 



REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 



To the President: 



Sir — I have the honor to submit herewith the annual report of the 

 Department of Practical Agriculture, foi" the year ending June 30, 1899. 



CLASS INSTRTTCTION. 



No change in the teaching force in this department is to be recorded 

 except the departure of Mr. M. W. Fulton, after the close of the fall term, 

 1898. Mr. Fulton has been connected with the department since Sep- 

 tember, 1895. To his hands have been committed for the last year and 

 more the immediate supervision of the student labor and the instruction 

 and experiments in soil physics. He has performed his work faithfully 

 and skillfully, and his departure is a distinct loss to the institution. 



In my annual report for the j-ear ending June 30, 1898, I presented a 

 somewhat extended list of examination questions used in the classes in 

 Practical Agriculture, in that year. The work of the past year has not 

 differed materially from that of the year preceding. Our classes have 

 been large beyond precedent in the history of the College. As a conse- 

 quence we have had to divide and subdivide into sections that we could 

 handle in the kind of work that we have given them. 



In the fall term of 1898 the Freshmen were instructed in stock breed- 

 ing and breeds of live stock, Prof. Muuilbrd being assisted in the in- 

 struction in the yards by Mr. True. The large class is divided into two 

 sections; one coming from ten to twelve a. m., and the other from one to 

 three p. m. As winter approached the necessity of a suitable amphi- 

 theater in which to comfortably house the classes while judging the 

 animals became more and more imperative. 



While the Freshmen were taking this work in stock judging the Sopho- 

 mores were completing their work in drainage, soil physics and farm 

 crops. It was quite impossible to teach classes as large as those com- 

 ing to the College last year much of the art of farming. The time of the 

 students was therefore largely occupied with a study of general principles 

 and the application of the sciences taught in the College laboratories to 

 the solution of the present problems confronting farmers. 



The technical work in stock feeding and management is given in the 

 Junior year with an opportunity to carry it farther in the Senior year. 

 In the winter and spring terms of the Junior year we have given those 

 students who have elected for the remainder of their course, work in this 

 department, advanced work in the chemistry of soils and fertilizers. This 

 instruction has consisted partly of a course of reading, but mostly of 

 actual ex])eriments involving the analyses of soils and fertilizers. I am 

 glad to report that, through the cooperation of the Chemical Department 

 4 



