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attention to the dressing, laying out, and inclosing of the portion of the farm already cleared. They have plans maturing for uniting closely the farm and the class-room instruction, and other plans for giving students practice in the art of conducting experiments.

Under the act of re-organization, the Farm Superintendent is a member of the faculty of the College; his department dependent on, and independent of, faculty direction, in the same way as other departments of the College, and the plans for its management as a means of instruction, will come under the discussion of the faculty and the direction of the Board.

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Extracts from the report of the Farm Superintendent are appended, by which it will be seen that from an appropriation not contemplating these improvements, the Board have been able, by rigid economy, to find means to put a new roof upon the brick barn, at an expense of $300; to build a bridge across Cedar river, at a cost of $750, and to erect and finish a barn for hay, grain, and stabling cattle, at a cost not much exceed ing $1,500.

Four lots of swamp lands have been sold, on annual payments. The proceeds of the sales are kept distinct from other funds, to apply to the improvement of the remainder of those lands, as required by the law.

For a fuller account of the College than is here given, reference is respectfully made to the report of the faculty, appended. Since it was submitted to the Board, a few hundred dollars worth of books for the College library has been ordered. The College has been prosperous in the main. Diphtheria brought mourning and a short vacation during the last summer. Eleven of the students present at the beginning of the term, and very many of those in attendance last year, are in the national army. But there has been a quite large and an increasing number of students, as the catalogues will show, who speak in terms of enthusiasm of the nature of the studies they pursue, and the most of whom intend to follow farming on the termination of their course of study. It is hoped and expected

that the graduates of the College, by the exercise of greater skill in the saving and application of manures, and methods of cultivation, and in the choice of richer varieties of garden products, will serve as centres of good influences. Whatever neighbors may say at first, unmistakable signs of thrift, with which a wider knowledge of physical science will reward the farmer who is taught in his profession, will at last compel their attention and imitation. It is not expected that the Agricultural College will differ in its modes of greatest influence from those of other institutions, all of which exert their greatest good, not chiefly upon the limited number of their students, but through the diffusive property of the intellectual light and power which the students carry everywhere within themselves The warrant statement and Treasurer's account are appended to the report. The eight hundred dollars of borrowed money, which swells both sides of the Treasurer's report, has been repaid. Seven hundred and six dollars and forty-seven cents of the receipts went to pay warrants issued by the Board of Education, before the College was put under the control of the present Board.

The Treasurer reports a balance in his hands of $4,814 69. Of this sum warrants are already issued to the amount of $421 51; $273 22, being receipts from swamp land sales, is held exclusively to the improvement of said lands, and about $200 will go to purchase books already ordered. The Board held their last meeting for the auditing of accounts the 13th of November, when, owing to the sickness of the Superintendent of the Farm, some few accounts were not presented. Since that time expenditures have been made for lumber and labor for finishing the barn, paving, digging well, fencing its yard, &c. These works, with various other improvements of land and buildings, are now going on, or are ordered for the winter. When all the Board contemplate doing is accomplished, there will still remain at the close of win'er, some small unexpended balance of the appropriation in their hands.

The Legislature of two years ago, feeling the need of the strictest economy, made the appropriations to each of the State institutions no larger than their very necessities required. Although the condition of the State Treasury is now much better than at that time, and the Board could advantageously spend a much larger sum, they are not disposed at this time to ask an increase over what was deemed essential two years ago, namely: ten thousand dollars for each of the two years, 1863 and 1864. With less than this sum they do not see how the enterprise can be successfully prosecuted. This appropriation, therefore, is respectfully asked.

Congress, at its last session, by an act No. 108, approved July 2, 1862, donated to each State public lands to the amount of 30,000 acres for each of its Senators and Representatives in Congress, according to the census of 1860, for "the endowment, support and maintenance of at least one College, where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts." The provisions of this act of Congress, and the legislation necessary on the part of the State for its acceptance and realization, will doubtless be brought to the notice of the Legislature by His Excellency the Governor of the State, in his message. The homestead law, confining lands to small estates and actual settlers, still leaves room for the immediate disposal of some portion of the lands granted by Congress; and will most probably serve in the end to quicken the sales and enhance the value of the lands that may be selected, operating in behalf of the State as the numerous gifts of lots and large improvements redound to the wealth of large land owners generally.

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In the midst of a rebellion, which largely engrosses the interest of every loyal citizen, the Legislature of this State has been too wise to overlook the education of her youth. For out of an education which teaches how to appreciate and use fieedom and the blessings of a benign government, springs true and enduring patriotism. None so cheerfully enlist, nor so

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faithfully serve, nor so quickly draw others after them into the service, as our educated young men. Perhaps no army ever drew into its ranks so large a proportion of those who are fitted by knowledge and mental discipline to fill places of influence and responsibility, as that which the North has sent into the field. After the triumph of northern arms, will come the need of young men of disciplined minds and large acquirements, to guide public opinion, and to serve in legislation or in administration of the law. National and State affairs will be more difficult of discussion, and a wider knowledge of the lessons of history, of the nature of our government, and of political philosophy, will be demanded of citizens than heretofore. fostering of our higher grade of schools and educational institutions, is intimately linked with all our hopes of noble citizenship and successful statesmanship in the years that follow. The catalogue of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, for the year 1854, showed a total number of students, after excluding those in the medical college, of only ninety-three. The existence of the University, with its means of instruction, and its graduates scattered over the State, has created in good part a desire to share its benefits; so the Agricultural College, with its more extended range of study in the physical sciences, and its labor system, and its relations to practical agriculture, is, we are sure, from the testimony coming from different quarters of the State, winning its way rapidly in public favor, and alluring young men who have no expectation of leaving agricultural for professional walks of life, to that study which will ennoble themselves and enrich the State.

Т. С. АВВОТ,

Act. Sec. State Board of Agriculture.

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