DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 117 



students the Departments of Botany and Chemistry, which were the two 

 scientific departments first astablished, would not only "be greatly en- 

 larged as attendance increased but that other related subjects of scientific 

 inqniry would be organized into separate departments. 



In the founding of this College the State was not niggardly in provid- 

 ing adequate scientific equipment. The north half of the first floor of 

 old College Hall wais a well-furnished chemical and physical laboratory 

 provided with up-to-date (1857) apparatus, this equipment being compar- 

 able in extent with that possessed by any college in the middle west. 



The large (48 inch ) plate glass wheel of the frictional electric machine 

 mounted in a solid mahogany frame was enclosed in a large blue-curtained 

 glazed case and occupied one end of the rostrum of the College chapel. 

 It gave the student, while attending dally prayers, an inkling of how 

 deeply he would be enabled to penetrate the mysteries of nature in the 

 newl}' esta'blished Agricultural college. As a small boy I regarded this cab- 

 inet containing the wonderful electric machine with much of the awe 

 with which the Jews regarded the Ark of the Covenant, 'and I have little 

 doubt it was equally impressive to tlie incoming student. 



"Learn b^' doing" was the motto of M. A. C. from the outset. Thus the 

 requirement from each student of three hours manual labor on the farm 

 or garden, daily, in tlie afternoon, while in the morning hours his time 

 wais devoted to class recitation and laboratoiy work, — the latter being 

 emphasized to a hitherto unheard-of extent. (FiXample: a three-hour 

 period devoted to analj-tical chemistry daily !) 



The desire for a separate building for laboratory purposes was first at- 

 tained on the campus by the construction of tlie new chemical labora- 

 tory (1871) at an expense of !!i512,0()(). This wa,s furnished with hood's for 

 ventilation patterned after those of the laboratory at Bonn (Germany) 

 Universit}'. (This first laboratory building is still in use.) A few years 

 later a botanical laboratory of wood construction followed. (Burned 

 1888) . These two laboratories may be considered as the detennining fac- 

 tors in the adoption of the policy of separate laboratories for the college 

 scientific departments. The results of the scientific researches carried on 

 in botany, chemistry and entomology between 1870-90 at M. A. C. had 

 much to do in establishing its reputation not only with the farmers of 

 Michigan but in the nation also. Students were drawn to M. A. C. by 

 the reputation which the College had earned for giving thorough training 

 in the elementary sciences. 



Continued growth of the College brought additional laboratory build- 

 ings — greater demand for time for experiment in the laboratory on the 

 part of the student. This demand for time and more laboratorv^ work 

 resulted finally in the abandonment of the required labor system (1895). 



Laboratoi'y research in "Land Grant" colleges was greatly stimulated 

 bv the various Congressional grants known as the Hatch (1887), second 

 Morrill (1890), Adams (1900), and Nelson (1907) acts. The immediate 

 result of the Hatch Act was the establishment of agricultural experiment 

 stations throughout the nation. Naturally many of our graduates be- 

 came experiment station workers serving as bacteriologists, botanists, 

 chemists and entomologists in addition to a number Avho engaged as 

 technical agricultural experimenters in live-stock, dairying, crops, horti- 

 culture, etc. Familiarity with the problems of an administrative char- 



