68 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



At the completion of the special course in live stock husbandry a majority 

 of the students expressed a desire to continue their connection with the 

 college b}' taking an advanced course next winter in which certain new 

 features, including farm mechanics, work at the forge, and at the bench, 

 and more extended dairy work, should be prominent, but in which stock 

 judging should still form an essential part. Such an advanced course 

 should certainly be given to satisfy a demand of which this is but one ex- 

 pression. In the course as given there is little opportunity to bring any 

 one subject to a definite conclusion. The time given to stock judging is 

 as great as the demands of other studies could possibl}'' allow. It could 

 not be carried far enough to make experts of the students although it gave 

 them a sufficient insight to make them hungry to carr}' the work farther. 

 In stock feeding time allowed but for an elementary consideration of nutri- 

 ents, a brief review of the theories of nutrition and the merest statement 

 of the composition and values of certain food products. The students 

 were prepared to make practical application of what they did learn but 

 there was left much of the essentials for a supplementar}^ course. 



Viewing the live stock course as a whole, it cannot fail to appear as one 

 of the most promising avenues through which the usefulness of the college 

 is to be extended to the state at large. It is ni}'- desire, therefore, to put 

 forth every effort for the development of this course which is less technical 

 than the others and wider in its promise and scope. We should have an 

 attendance of several hundred to this course alone, but here the limitations 

 of the equipment are felt. Several distinguished men visited the college 

 to address our classes but there was no room large enough to hold, all of 

 the students in the special courses, save the chapel, and that was not adapted 

 to the purposes of the lecturer. At the regular classes some of the students 

 had to be perched upon stools and most of them were seated upon benches 

 without arm rests or places for note books. Until larger class rooms and 

 more of them are provided it seems an injustice to the public to widely 

 advertise the course. 



The fruit course had an attendance of seven. These young men were 

 thoroughly interested and enthusiastic but had the energy and money used 

 in advertising this course been devoted to advertising the live stock course, 

 it would have attracted many more students to the college. 



Hereafter the number of students allowed in the cheese course should 

 be limited to twenty, since the cheese room cannot accommodate more 

 than that number without great inconvenience. 



The college is to be congratulated upon both the numbers of students 

 in attendance at the four special courses and upon the interest and enthu- 

 siasm displayed. 



Respectfullv submitted. 



C. D. SMITH. 



Dean of Special Courses. 

 Agricultural College, Mich., June 30, 1905. 



