88 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



During the course of the year some minor changes have been made 

 in the equipment such as building of more cases to accommodate ap- 

 liaratus and supplies, additional shelves for the seed collection, etc. 

 During the course of the year there were prepared and sent out to 

 various high schools as well as to some of the County Agents in con- 

 nection with the office of Farm Managoment. forty-eight sets of seeds 

 of Michigan weeds, each set containing seed of about ninety weeds and 

 for comparison, seeds of about ten cultivated plants with which the 

 weeds are likely to be confused. Similarly, Professor Coons prepared 

 and sent out to a number of high schools throughout the state, sets 

 illustrating tifty of the more imxiortant plant diseases. Both sets were 

 sold at a price just sufficient to cover cost of material and hired labor, 

 no charge being made for the time of the regular members ot the botani- 

 cal statf as this was considered as work that falls directly within the 

 province of the Botanical department. 



^fr. Uphof, in charge of the Herbarium, has entirely rearranged the 

 Herbarium in accordance with the system of Engler and Prantl, a sys- 

 tem of classification most in use throughout the world at the present 

 time. He also segregated the Michigan plants from the others. The 

 collection of plants made under the direction of the Biological Survey of 

 the State Geological Survey in the summer of 1911, has been mounted 

 and will be placed with Ihe ^Nfichigan collection as soon as room is pro- 

 vided by the construction of additional herbarium cases which have 

 been ordered. Mr. Uphof also mounted over one thousand specimens of 

 plants collected by me in Florida, a large part of which I am donating 

 outright to the college Herbarium, the remainder of which are l)eing 

 placed with the Herbarium as a loan so long as I shall continue to be 

 connected with the institution. Tn addition to these, the standard 

 sets and collections of fungi and algae for which the department is a 

 regular subscriber, have been received so that the number of plants be- 

 longing to the Herbarium has been increased by probably nearly three 

 thousand in the past year. 



T wish to urge the impoHance of extension work in the Botanical 

 department along several lines including the dissemination of infonna- 

 tion conceiniing weeds and other T)lauts and more particularly, in order 

 to disseminate infonnation concerning ]>lant diseases and their pre- 

 vention. At present the Kesearch Assistant in Plant Pathology, P'ro- 

 fessor Coons, is engaged on certain research work for which he re- 

 ceived salaiw from the Adams Fund. It is im]iossil»le for him to take 

 the time away from this Adams Fund research and devote it to these 

 other imjmrtant services such as dissemination of knowledge concern- 

 ing plant diseases. Furthermore, it is often desirable io send a man to 

 various ]ioints through the state to visit farms or orchards where cer- 

 tain diseases seem to be creating particular havoc. To send Professor 

 Coons would mean to take him away from the work for which he is paid 

 ])y the Government. It seems to me, therefore, that this work ought to 

 be midertaken. as it is in so many other states, at state exjiense. The 

 a})pointment of such a man would make it possible to bring the Botani- 

 cal department in its activities into much closer touch with the people 

 of the state. 



Finally, I wish to commend the extreme loyalty of the teaching force 

 of the department in spite of the fact that, especially in the winter 



