SOPHOMORE CLASS.

First Half Year.-Physics, Structural Botany and Vegetable Physiology, Elementary Chemistry.

Second Half Year.-Physics, Analytical Chemistry, Systematic Botany, Horticulture.

JUNIOR CLASS.

First Half Year.-English Literature, Agricultural Chemistry, Animal Physiology.

Second Half Year.-Industrial Drawing, Landscape Gardening, Rhetoric, Zoology.

SENIOR CLASS.

First Half Year.-Inductive Logic, Mental Philosophy, Civil Engineering.

Second Half Year.-Astronomy, Moral Philosophy, Political Economy.

Declamations every six weeks during the course. Compositions every two weeks.

Drill in Infantry Tactics twice each week.

A lecture is given in the Chapel each Tuesday afternoon, as follows:

On Horticulture, the first Tuesday of each month.

On Application of Chemistry to the Arts, 2d Tuesday.

On Manual operations of the Farm, 3d Tuesday.

On Care and Feeding of Domestic Animals, Health, and on various topics, 4th and 5th Tuesdays.

On Military Hygiene, the 1st Friday.

On Military Fortifications and Field Operations, the 3d Friday. The Preparatory class is at present indispensable. The 'graduate of the common school," to use the language of the law, is to be admitted. It is not contemplated in the act that the farmers' sons shall have to go to some union or graded school to prepare for his course at the Agricultural College. It is found necessary to have many of the applicants for admis

sion review the ordinary branches of their common school education, in order to enter to better advantage on the studies of the course. The improvement of the common schools of the State, now taking place, may eventually bring an end to the necessity of this review.

Students also are received who do not desire to take the full course. These are permitted to select from the studies. pursued at the time, but they are required to conform, as to labor, and general regulations, to the rules and routine of college life.

After settling on a course of study indoors, the attention of the Board was next directed to the outdoor appurtenances of the College.

What was the farm designed for? All with whom we consulted, agreed that it is for the students to work upon. All see the need of keeping them robust by the habit of daily work. But further than this how is the farm to be conducted? It was the opinion of very many that its main use was to lessen the expenses of students by giving them wages for their work. With this end in view, the farm would be put under some practical farmer whose past history would be a warrant for prudent and successful management. The students would labor not at what they needed most to learn, but in branches where their labor would pay best. The management would not be connected with the instruction of the Horticulturist, the Agricul tural Chemist, or the Professor of Animal Physiology.

Such has been hitherto, to a great extent, the management of the farm. The direction of the farm has been free from the influence of the instruction of the Institution, and out of the con trol of the Faculty of the College.

The Board of Agriculture were of opinion that this use of the farm was not its appropriate one, and their views were sustained by the nearly unanimous voice of intelligent farmers and educators with whom they conversed. The Professors in the College also pointed to the lack of intimate relationship between farm and instruction, as a standing reproach to the

Institution. They agreed with us in thinking the farm, and all on it as designed to be the means of illustrating the principles of science and correct practice, the field where the student should be instructed how to do what he needed to learn.

Previously to a detail of the plan of connection between farm and labor, a few words will not be inappropriate as to whose should be the labor and task of illustrating out of doors the instruction given in the class room. Could a Farm Superintendent be procured, who, to original quickness of perception and soundness of judgment, added a thorough knowledge of the various departments of science, he might perhaps be entrusted with this labor, acting conjointly with the Instructors. Or a Presi dent of like sort might hold a like position. But men of such attainments are not to be hoped for. There arises but one Humboldt or two, at most, in a generation, to fill mankind with admiration and gratitude. A man may understand the general principles of the working of the steam engine, and be able to give a clear exposition of them, fully sufficient for the purposes of general science. But there is needed a fuller, more intimate, more professional knowledge in him, who will make one and adapt it to novel uses. So in every case, that knowledge which instructs not in principles only, but in practice, and in the adaptation of methods to varying circumstances, must be the result of long-continued, and professional investigation. Those only are capable of giving full instruction, who are capable of conducting the practical applications of the principles they teach. Such instruction is not expected nor hoped for out of the Professor's chair, but there it is expected. The general management of the stock should therefore be under the advice, and under the eye of the Professor of Animal Physiology. He should propose the kind of care, the methods of breeding, the nature and quality of food. So the gardens should be under the immediate oversight of the Professor of Horticulture. He should propose the methods of culture, and himself have personal charge of grounds, grapery, orchards and gardens.

In like manner the Professor of Agricultural Chemistry

should himself oversee those experiments in which fertilizers are tested, should have personal charge of the saving and composing of manures, and should propose the scheme of a rotation of crops. Everywhere on the Farm the influence of his personal inspection should be felt.

But the provinces of the Chemist and the Zoologist, of the Chemist and the Horticulturist invade each other. There is disputed territory. There are principles to apply from several departments of science,-what then shall be the uniting element? In turn there must be proportion of effort. The field of labor in every department is endless, but must be prosecuted only so far as the common benefit of all will permit. There must then be some deciding authority over the advice and plans of the several departments. It is believed this can be nowhere so safely lodged as with the Faculty itself as a body.

The general plan adopted is in accordance with the views just expressed. The Superintendent of the Farm presents a plan of operations for the season, through the President, to the Faculty of the College. With them it undergoes a thorough examination. It is discussed in regard to the principles of rotation of crops, to value as a crop, to value as a means of instruction to the students, or as an experiment, and in regard to preparation and quantity of seed, the fertilizers that can be spared, and the pecuniary or other means of the Institution. The plan elicited by this discussion is to be followed, unless modified by the authority that adopted it, or by the Board of Agriculture.

Similar is the process of determining the general care of the grounds, the vegetable garden, fruit gardens, orchards, the care of stock, and preparation of manures. In all cases a written report is presented, and some plan adopted by the Faculty, to be carried into operation.

In the Secretary's office these reports are to be found recorded, together with a Journal of Farm and Garden operations. It is made the duty of the Professor of Agricultural Chemistry to keep a meteorological record in accordance with the instruc

tions of the Smithsonian Institute. The records have embraced observations with barometer, attached thermometer, thermometer in the open air, hygrometer and rain-gauge. They have been furnished regularly to the Department of Agriculture at Washington, by the Professor of Chemistry.

In order that students may derive the greatest benefit from their labor at the College, it is classified, and students are systematically transferred from one department to another, that they may have the benefit of instruction and practice in all kinds of labor. The handiest methods of manual practice are discussed in weekly public lectures, and further instruction given on the field of labor. There they are shown how to do a thing, and their faults corrected. In the course of four years, a student spends one year continuously on the farm, and one continuously in the various gardens; the remaining time is spent alternately on farm and gardens. A further detail of the plan will be found in the appendix to this report.

The students who have made sufficient proficiency in the sciences assist in the conduct of experiments. The method pursued the year just closing was as follows: The Faculty adopted the plan, and assigned the duty of carrying it out to one of their number, under whose direction the work was to be done by students of the Junior Class. The professor's instructions were written, the labor was all performed under his eye, and reports made to him by each student of the management of the part assigned him, and the professor in turn reported to the Faculty of the College. It is thought that no other method will so surely educate the young man in the accuracy of observation and care in details, which are essential to every experiment in agriculture which is worth the name.

There does not as yet exist what can strictly be called scientific agriculture, because very many of the principles that underlie the practice are not yet ascertained. The first prerequisite for their discovery are tables of accurate experiments, and those also do not exist. It is not to be denied that some