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REPORTS OF THE PRESIDENT AND THE HEADS OF DE

PARTMENTS.

The following reports are made by the President and the heads of departments to the Board of Trustees.

PRESIDENT'S REPORT.

To the Honorable Board of Trustees:

GENTLEMEN-I take pleasure in reporting the excellent condition of the Agricultural College throughout the past year. All its departments have made satisfactory progress, and all parties connected therewith have worked together in the utmost harmony.

The following statement comprises the attendance during the spring and fall terms:

STUDENTS IN ATTENDANCE DURING THE YEAR 1883.

Seniors

Ladies.....

Gentlemen.

Juniors

Ladies.....

Gentlemen..

Sophomores

Ladies......

Gentlemen..

Freshmen

Ladies.....

Gentlemen...

Sub-Freshmen

Ladies...

Gentlemen Special Students

Ladies.....

Gentlemen.

Post Graduates

Lady.....

Gentlemen...

Veterinary School—....

Whole number of students....

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The steady growth of the Agricultural College, which has been very marked during the past few years, will make farther buildings indispensable. The classes in some of the different schools and de partments have become too large for the halls in which their exercises are held. The engineers have hitherto met for instruction in a small room which will not hold seats and drawing tables enough for their The mechanics have had their practice in a basement which has not sufficient bench room to enable them all to work at once.

use.

We asked the last Legislature for an appropriation of $10,000 to put up a new building for these two departments, but only $5,000 was granted. With this limited sum we have built a hall that is too small to accommodate the growing classes of the Engineering School.

The same may be said with still greater emphasis respecting the lack of buildings for conducting the exercises of the Veterinary School. This school, as everybody knows, is of vital importance to the stock interests of the State. It will not be able for some years to supply the demand now existing for veterinary physicians and surgeons in the different stock centers. Its offices and lecture rooms are sufficiently commodious, but the veterinary hospital is an insignificant barn not large enough to accommodate the stock of an ordinary farm. It is impossible to build up institutions of industrial science and prac tice without adequate buildings.

We want for this rising veterinary school a hospital, whose capacity shall not only meet the needs of the present, but shall suffice for the growth of future years. We have already erected on these grounds enough of shambling structures with stinted appropriations. Let Iowa fulfill her assumed obligations to Congress in such a manner as will comport with the importance of this great enterprise, and supply the wants of generations to come.

ZOOLOGICAL BUILDING.

The Department of Zoology is an indispensable adjunct of an industrial college. We should have a mere fragment of an agricultural school without it. In this college it has a name, but no local habitaation. Its large classes meet in the narrow rooms of the main building, in the museum, or wherever they can. What it needs for full development is a building of its own, in whose rooms and halls it can gather collections, make analyses, give lectures, and conduct reviews and examinations. This need is so great that the State will certainly give heed to it.

GASOMETER AND GAS HOUSE.

I have only to say respecting this item, that a new gas house is demanded as a measure of safety. The old gas house, whose cracked and crumbling walls lean against the main building, is a constant menace to the property of the College and the lives of the pupils. It has caught fire twice within the last two years. It ought to be removed without delay, and a new gas house put up at a safe distance, with a capacity for holding gas enough for two or three days' consumption.

A HOUSE AND BARN ON THE NORTH FARM,

which have become imperative wants, are minutely explained in Professor Knapp's report, to which the attention of your honorable body is respectfully called.

The engine and boiler by which the various buildings are supplied with water needs a shelter to save it from exposure to the weather and consequent decay. The College has recently purchased a new engine and boiler at considerable expense, but it cannot legally build an engine house with the interest fund. The Legislature in accepting the national endowment entered into an agreement to put up all necessary buildings at the expense of the State. So we are compelled in this, as in other instances, to ask the State to fulfill its contract.

PROFESSOR BUDD'S DWELLING HOUSE.

When Professor Budd accepted the chair of Horticulture, there was no building which his family could occupy as a residence. For this reason, having received the permission of the Trustees, he built an economical but comfortable dwelling on the college grounds, with his own means. In this house he has resided several years without charging rent, while other professors have had free houses assigned to them. Professor Budd now asks the Legislature to reimburse him for money so advanced and his value to the State, and the reasonableness of his claim will certainly justify the demand.

BUILDING FOR FIRE-PROOF VAULT AND OFFICES.

Respecting the necessity for this building, we have only to say that the college books and vouchers, embracing fifteen years, are exposed to constant danger from fire. Moreover, the continually increasing

business of the College has far outgrown the capacity of its present office.

COLLEGE HOSPITAL.

Prominent among the urgent necessities I have mentioned, is a college hospital for sick students. Every building used as a dormitory for a large number of young people is liable to be visited by infectious diseases. Despite the great care which is taken to prevent the spread of contagious maladies among the students, they have suffered several different times from measles, once from diphtheria, and once, the last summer, from scarlet fever. In this latter case, by rare good fortune, we were able to isolate, in a building temporarily unoccupied, each patient as soon as the first symptoms appeared, and to disinfect the vacated room with fumes of sulphur. In this way the dread malady was kept from spreading beyond six cases, none of which were fatal.

We believe that we could secure the College from the inroads of the various infections if we had the means of isolating the patient so that we could at once disinfect his room. A college hospital, which could be built at a limited expense, would thus enable us, in nearly all cases, to save the suffering, if not the lives, of the young people committed to our charge.

The following appropriations will be necessary for the buildings proposed:

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5,000.00

2,000.00

.$ 44,500.00

A. S. WELCH.

House and barn for north farm.

Pump house...

Purchase of house occupied by Professor Budd...

Building containing fire-proof vault and offices of Secretary,

Treasurer and President.....

College hospital..

Total...

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