from which they have been derived, and proposed disposition

of the same;

3. The number and condition of each distinct breed of sheep, and the grades of the same, with a statement of the amount and quality of wool produced, their management, increase, &c.;

4. Swine;

5. Poultry.

RULE 12. Each breed of domestic animals shall be so kept as to avoid any danger of crossing or mixing with any other breed. Cross breeding shall not be permitted, except to accomplish a definite object, or for the purpose of experiment, and then only in accordance with a plan, setting forth the object to be accomplished and adopted by the Faculty; who shall prescribe such regulations as may be necessary for putting the same into practical operation.

RULE 13. An accurate record of the stock belonging to the College shall be kept in a book provided for that purpose. The details of the breeding and management of each breed shall be carefully and distinctly stated, together with the purpose for which each animal is kept, and the disposition made of the same.

RULE 14. For the purpose of imparting to the student an accurate knowledge of Agriculture as an art, the Instructors in the several departments of the College, in their class-exercises, shall illustrate the sciences taught, as far as possible, by a thorough discussion of the principles involved in the details of the practical operations on the farm and in the garden.

RULE 15. The Superintendents of the Farm and Gardens shall make an annual report on the implements used in their respective departments, giving the results of their experience in the use of each implement and its adaptedness to the purpose for which it was designed, and its comparative value. Any new implement that has been tried during the year shall be particularly described, and an accurate estimate of its merits given.

RULE 16. A committee on Buildings shall be appointed each year, who shall report to the Faculty the condition of the build

ings, and recommend such additions and improvements as may seem desirable. The Faculty shall carefully examine the report when presented, and shall make such recommendations to the Board of Agriculture as they may deem for the interest of the College.

RULE 17. The State Board of Agriculture shall determine what proportion of the whole number of students on the farm and in the garden shall be assigned to each. The list of students shall be examined each week, to see that the proper proportion is employed in each department.

RULE 18. Students shall labor both on the farm and in the garden; and the alternations from the farm to the garden, and from the garden to the farm, shall be as frequent as the proportion of farm and garden labor, as determined by the State Board of Agriculture, will permit: provided that such changes shall not occur oftener than once a week.

[ April 6th, 1863, Rule 18 was amended by an addition that one class shall work an entire year on the garden and another on the farm for the same period.]

RULE 19. Students shall be employed with a view to their attaining the greatest proficiency in the art of farming, without reference to the greatest pecuniary gain to the College.

RULE 20. Work at the College shall be classified as follows: 1. Care of stock;

2. Care of tools and repairing the same;

3. Care of grounds and shrubbery;

4. Preparation of grounds for crops, plowing, &c.;

5. Sowing or planting different kinds of seeds;

6. Weeding and hoeing;

7. Harvesting and securing crops;

8. Preparation of manures;

9. Gathering and preserving seeds;

10. Secretary duties; care of books, &c.

RULE 21. The Faculty shall make such arrangements that each student shall perform a proper proportion of labor of the several kinds, as classified in Rule 20.

RULE 22. The Superintendents of the Farm and Gardens shall, once a month, deliver to the students lectures on topics connected with practical arrangement and management of farms and gardens.

RULE 23. The Professor of Agricultural Chemistry shall cause a daily meteorological journal to be kept, according to the system adopted by the Smithsonian Institute.

RULE 24. Any officer having in charge the development of any of these plans, who shall deem any change or modification of them advisable, shall submit to the Faculty a written statement, setting forth in full the reasons for the desired change. Changes or modifications adopted by the Faculty shall be recorded by the Secretary.

CHEMIST'S REPORT.

The attention of the Chemist, outside the regular routine of class exercises, has been mainly directed to swamp muck as a means of ameliorating the physical condition of soils and increasing their fertility, and to its use in composting manures. To this end a series of experiments was instituted, and a short course of lectures was delivered before the students. The experiments were not as extensive as had been designed, but circumstances I need not mention prevented a fuller course. It is not claimed for them that they fully establish any principle in. agriculture, but merely that they suggest inquiries which may be of great worth to our farmers if answered satisfactorily.

These experiments will be found at the conclusion of this article. It is designed to repeat them, and to extend the course of experiments the coming season. The advice and suggestions of farmers and experimenters are respectfully solicited.

Meanwhile, as furnishing an outline of the subject of inquiry and discussion, an epitome of the course of lectures is here presented.

In the husbandry of a prolific virgin soil, farmers are apt to consider their land so rich as to be practically inexhaustible. It is only when the land is robbed of its first fertility that the farmer learns from short crops and scanty returns that his land may be exhausted.

In an old book, entitled "The American Lady," published before the Revolution, the writer gives a lively description of the early settlers on the Mohawk and Hudson rivers, and describes the ingenious method they adopted to get rid of the manure

around their barns wirhout the trouble of drawing it away, "for," adds the writer, "their lands are so rich as to be only injured by the application of manure." Accordingly, the farmers built their barns so as to have the stable over the river in order that the manure might be thrown at once into the running water and washed away. The result is, that these same lands have become so impoverished by continual cropping with no return that the children of these same farmers are now importing guano at $60 per ton to enrich their exhausted soil.

Look at the possible history of the manure which the Dutchman got rid of with such neat dexterity. Swept by the waters of the Hudson into the ocean it would there nourish the microscopic insects of the sea, they in turn feeding the fish, and they, in their turn, devoured by the sea-fowl, whose droppings on the rocky islands within the tropics constitute the guano of commerce. Thus it is possible that the children of the dextrous Dutchman may be buying back the identical manure their father cast into the Mohawk or Hudson. They "cast their bread upon the waters, and it came back to them after many days," but costing $60 per ton by way of transpor tation and exchange.

Such a masterpiece of dexterity need not be expected more than once in a century, but feeble imitations of it may reasonably be anticipated. For example, look at the use made of swamp muck by our farmers. Probably no State in the Union is better supplied with this valuable article. This must be so from our peculiar geographical conformation. With a level surface, unbroken by mountain ranges or upheavals of any great extent, innumerable small lakes dot the surface of the country, and swamps of greater or less size are scattered profusely in all parts of the State. These swamps have been considered the opprobrium of our State, but they will yet be found a source of untold wealth to our agriculturists; for they are all filled with muck-they are "banks of deposit," where is stored the slowly accumulating vegetable wealth of untold centuries. These swamps were originally lakes, which have been filled up.