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STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

THE number of applications for admission to the College in 1866 and 1867, having been largely in excess of the number that could be accommodated with rooms,-notwithstanding that in most instances four, and sometimes five, students were placed in a room, the President, with the advice of the State Board of Agriculture, decided to discontinue the preparatory class for 1868, and gave notice to that effect through the public papers, before the opening of the term. Experience having shown the injudiciousness of crowding the rooms with students to the degree which had previously been done, it was resolved to change the course in this respect.

The number of students in attendance during the present year has been 82—quite as large a number as could be properly accommodated, especially as a room which had previously been occupied by four students, was necessarily taken as a class-room in Agriculture and Zoology. It may be remarked, too, that there were comparatively few changes of students at the beginning of the second half-term, the intention being so general, of those in attendance during the first, to continue during the second half-year, that no advertisement or notice was published of the time of the opening of the second half-term. The belief that the College would receive a much larger number of students than can at present be accommodated, if suitable additions were made to the dormitories, is fully warranted by the experience of the past few years.

Of the students in attendance during the present year, 10 were Seniors,—all of whom graduated at the late commence

ment,-13 Juniors, 25 Sophomores, and 34 Freshmen. Seventysix were from twenty-six counties of this State, and six from without the State. Sixty, or three-fourths of the whole number, are sons of farmers, and the larger part of them work or teach in winter, to earn means for defraying their college expenses. The average age of the Senior class is 21 6-10 years; that of the Junior and Sophomore classes, 20 4-10; and that of the Freshmen, 18 8-10 years.

The conduct of the students has been altogether praiseworthy. They have manifested great interest in their studies, and in their work, performing all their duties quietly and cheerfully. They have at all times had free access to the garden, where through the season there have been various ripened fruits, and no instance is known of anything having been wrongfully appropriated.

The corps of teachers at the College for the year ending Dec. 1, 1868, has consisted of a President, four Professors, and one Instructor.

By the organic law of the College, the students are required to labor on the farm, garden, or at mechanical work, a certain portion of each day. The system has proved itself to be a good one, and gives better and better satisfaction to both officers and students, from year to year. The exercise is conducive to physical health and mental vigor, whilst, in connection with the instruction which accompanies the labor, the student obtains much valuable information of a practical character, which could be obtained in no other way.

Joseph Harris, late editor and proprietor of the "Genesee Farmer," and the writer of the popular articles entitled "Walks and Talks," first published in the paper mentioned, and now continued in the "American Agriculturist," visited the College in June last, and in giving an account, in the journal last mentioned, of what he saw, said: "During the morning the students attend to their various studies. President Abbot took me into the rooms where they were reciting, and a finer set of young men I never saw together. Most of them are farmers'

sons. In the afternoon they put on a working suit, and for three hours were employed on the farm, or in the garden or tool-house. Some were cultivating corn; others pulling out stumps with a machine; others were helping the sheep-shearers, tying up the fleeces, weighing those of the different breeds and grades, and entering the weights in a book, with appropriate remarks in regard to the length of the staple, fineness, &c. One was pushing a hand-cultivator through the cleanest and best crop of onions I ever saw growing; another was cultivating a young apple orchard; others were in the hay-field, where a new mower and hay-tedder were about being started. * * You need not tell me that a young man will not learn much at such an institution. Leaving science entirely out of the question, what he sees of good cultivation, good implements and machines, improved breeds of cattle, sheep and pigs, will go far towards making him a good farmer. Success to the American Agricultural Colleges, and may the day soon come-and it is coming very fast-when trained minds and skilled hands shall banish drudgery from American farms. I am no advocate for ease and indolence; I believe in work, but I want work to tell.”

THE CROPS OF THE FARM

Have done as well this year as could have been expected, considering the character of the season. The spring was very cold and backward, which prevented the planting of Indian corn to be finished till June. The severe drought of July and August injured all late crops, and putting almost an entire stop to the growth of grass, pinched the grazing stock for food. Still, the report of the Farm Superintendent shows that the yield of some crops has been good. Indian corn gave an average of 93 bushels of ears per acre, and a portion of one field gave 120 bushels of ears per acre. The ground devoted to wheat was a piece from which the stumps had just been pulled, and there were many vacant spots where the soil had been disturbed by the large roots drawn out. The yield was 20 bushels

per acre, of the Treadwell variety, of good quality. Oats yielded 50 bushels per acre.

Considerable attention has, for several years, been given to the cultivation of roots,--chiefly Swedish turnips and mangold wurtzel. The crop of the present year was much injured by drought, though the yield of some portions of the field was good, and the average on 12 acres was 400 bushels per acre. When taken up, the latter part of October, the tops afforded a very timely supply of green food for cattle for several weeks. The mode of preparing roots for feeding to stock lately adopted - pulping and mixing them with cut fodder -- so far as can be judged by practice thus far, seems likely to be attended with great advantage. Substances which could only be fed to stock with much waste, in the ordinary mode of feeding, are by this system wholly consumed, and the stock does well.

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IN IMPROVED LABOR-SAVING IMPLEMENTS AND MACHINES,

Valuable additions have been made during the year. Phifer's Field-Cultivator and Gang-Plough, manufactured by A. L. Brearley & Co., Trenton, N. J., was received too late in the season of 1867 to be used that year. It has been used extensively this year, in preparing ground for corn-planting, in the cultivation of corn, in the preparation of ground for roots, and in the cultivation of the crop. For all these, and for other purposes, it has proved to be a very valuable implement. It received the gold medal of the New York State Agricultural Society at the trial at Utica, where competition was unrestricted, in 1867.

Crawford's Garden Cultivator, manufactured by Blymer, Norton & Co., Cincinnati, O., has been used with much saving of hand labor in the cultivation of garden crops.

Harrington's Hand Seed-Sower has been in use on the farm and in the garden for several years. It is a very useful machine, doing its work with precision and dispatch, and is also readily convertible into a hand cultivator, in which capacity it does good and speedy execution in the eradication of weeds.

The "New Yorker" reaping machine, manufactured by Seymour, Morgan & Allen, Brockport, N. Y., which received the gold medal of the New York State Agricultural Society, at the Auburn trial, 1866—competition unrestricted-was used during the last grain harvest with success. It is a self-raking machine, and does its work in an excellent manner, under any conditions that it would be proper to use a reaping machine.

The Buckeye combined mowing and reaping machine, manufactured by Aultman, Miller & Co., Akron, Ohio, by its performance both in grain and grass, supported the wide-spread popularity of this machine. As a reaper, it was used with an attachment called a "dropper." As a mower, it gave entire satisfaction.

The "Iron Mower," manufactured by Gregg, Plyer & Co., Trumansburg, N. Y., is a light, easy-working, and efficient machine.

The American Hay-Tedder, manufactured by the Ames Plough Company, Boston, is quite different in construction from the older form invented by Bullard. It is strong and simple, and very effective in its operation-leaves the hay light and exposed to the air. Bullard's tedder, perhaps, requires less power, but is hardly as strong. In making hay, cut sufficiently early to give that of the best quality, these machines usually save a day in the curing.

The root-pulper, an English machine, manufactured by Ransome & Sims, Ipswich and London, is one of the first, if not the first, ever introduced into the United States. The process of pulping roots has, in Great Britain, nearly superseded steaming and other cooking of them, except for milch cows in rather cold weather. The process is much less expensive than cooking, and for most feeding purposes is decidedly preferable. The pulp may be fed by itself, or mixed with any kind of chaffed or cut fodder, imparting to it an agreeable flavor, and probably aiding the digestion of the fibrous matter.

An English grubber and subsoiler has been obtained, but too late to be used this year. It is wholly of iron and steel, and is

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