GENERAL STATEMENT.

Of Receipts and Disbursements A. & M. College, from Nov. 28th, 1885, to Nor. 20th, 1887.

STATEMENT

Of Farm Account from Nov. 28, 1885, to Nov. 20, 1887.

Of Horticultural Account from November 28, 1885, to

Of College Property Appraised Tuesday and Wednesday,

November 15th and 16th, 1887.

STATEMENT

Of the Appraising Committee.

A. and M. COLLEGE, MISS.,
November 15th, 1887. (

887.}

In the performance of our duty as appraisers of the property of the A. and M. College, we have had opportunity to see much of the practical workings of the institution, and we think it is in accordance with the proprieties of the case for us to express to the Legislature and people of the State our high appreciation of the great success of this industrial school. All the departments, so far as their circumstances will allow, are in admirable working order. The farm has been put in good tillable condition, and its products are not only gratifying, but surprising in their abundance.

In the dairy and creamery department we have the inauguration of a new industry which is destined, in the very near future, to add immensely to the prosperity of our State.

The horticultural department has had from the beginning to struggle against the disadvantages of meagre appropriations. Nevertheless, it is doing noble service in demonstrating the practicability and profit of truck and fruit farming.

In this wide range of diversified farming the students can indulge their tastes as to the particular line of industry they may choose, and by the practical instruction given in connection with the labor of their own hands, they may easily acquire the grandest of all arts-the art of being independent. The school has been wisely built, and if properly sustained it is fraught with untold blessings to our State.

We call special attention to the fact that the horticultural department is too meagrely sustained. This is the department in which students could be most readily employed, but it is crippled for want of funds.

The cattle on the farm afford about the only manurial supply and they belong to the farm department, so that the garden, where fertilizers are absolutely indispensable, is too much left without this real element of success. Beyond question this department needs most of all to be strengthened at this time.

We respectfully call attention to the fact that a mechanical department was contemplated in the establishment of the school. But little has, as yet, been done in this direction. Students should be taught the use of tools. Many of them, probably, would prefer to learn mechanics. The College is not complete without the establishment of this lepartment.