STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

INSTRUCTION DEPARTMENT.

STUDENTS.

The College has had a total number of 131 students during the year. The Senior class numbered 5. This is smaller than the Senior Class has been for some years; in 1871 it numbered 12; in 1870, 12; in 1869, 11; in 1868, 10. There have been 19 Juniors; 36 Sophomores; 53 Freshmen; 9 in special studies, and 4 ladies. No ladies have been received into the Hall the present year. The number of the applications of ladies for admission is constantly increasing, and it is a matter of regret to the Board of Agriculture, and to the Faculty of the College, that we have not a Hall for ladies, connected with the institution. Reference is made to the Report of the Board for 1870, pages 12 and 13, for further remarks on ladies as students.

Two graduates of the College have been present as resident graduates; one pursuing the study of Chemistry, until lately he has been called to teach Agriculture and Analytical Chemistry in the University of Minnesota; the other as a student of Botany, except for about two months, when he acted as botanist to an exploring expedition sent out by the Kansas Agricultural College into western Kansas.

During the summer vacation of the union schools of the State, three of the principals of such schools presented themselves unexpectedly, and without knowledge of the intentions of each other, and desired lessons in Analytical Chemistry and

Chemical Manipulations. They were received, and their names appear as resident graduates on the catalogue.

In consequence of several requests coming from teachers of the State, it has been determined by the Faculty to form a class in Chemical Manipulations, on the first Wednesday in August, to continue three weeks. This will be free of expense to the teachers of primary, graded, and high public schools of the State. The members of the class will of course pay the cost of the materials they use in the laboratory.

The Faculty have taken a good deal of pains to make sure that each student goes over the entire ground in the studies that the class he is in may have studied. All examinations are in writing; the series of questions given to be answered are filed with the Secretary of the College. Students absent one-fifth of the time from any class, receive a private and special examination over the whole of the study pursued by the class.

Students who are deficient in more than one study at the beginning of any term are not permitted to re-enter the class until all, at least but one, of their back studies are made up, and a satisfactory examination passed in them. Students have not been permitted to change from the regular classes into the class of specials unless their standing and examinations would allow of their passing along with their class. They can enter only by falling back into a class that is to go over the studies in which they are deficient.

The following list shows the counties represented, and students from other States:

The studies pursued during the year, and the progress of the classes therein, are shown in the following extracts from the reports to the Faculty of the College by the several members thereof.

The Seniors had Astronomy for six weeks, going through Peabody's Elements, paying special attention to the methods of finding data for the science, and the methods of demonstration. Sufficient advancement was made to enable them to continue the study at any time should they so desire. They have also been through the most important portions of Mahan's Civil Engineering.

During the Second Term the Seniors and Juniors together have had daily class-room exercises in Porter's Intellectual Philosophy. Each member of the class has written several essays and analyses.

Portions of the writings of Bain, Cousin, Hamilton, and others, have been read and criticised in the class, so that its members might understand what discussions are going on respecting perception, intuition, etc. In a series of familiar lectures and readings, there was given a connected view of the History of Philosophy.

Instead of using a text book on Political Economy, the Seniors this year received a course of lectures from the Professor in charge, intended to be more systematic in arrangement, more clearly confined to principles, and on some points connected with agriculture more suggestive, than any course of the same length from a text book could be made.

In French, the class have made the ordinary progress in grammar and pronunciation, and better than usual in the translation.

Fairchild's Moral Philosophy was completed in the ten weeks allotted to it, and the class seemed much interested.

In the study of Zoology, the Senior class received first a course of lectures on the history of Zoology and the different classifications of the most eminent writers on this subject This was followed by a more thorough study of Vertebrates.

A series of charts illustrating the diffierent branches, classes, and orders of the animal kingdom, prepared with great care and labor by the Professor in charge, were found to add much to the interest of the study, and to be of very great value to the class.

The commencement exercises of the Senior class passed off well. The orations, five in number, showed much care in composition, and were well delivered.

The introduction of Day's Praxis, by short courses, in different years, is regarded as having an excellent effect upon the general advancement in arrangement of thoughts, and in style of expression.

During the first term the Seniors received a course of lectures on Practical Agriculture, comprising the general principles of farm economy; manures-their management and mode of application; rotation of crops; preparation of the soil for particular crops; cultivation of crops; management of grass lands; stock husbandry; care of animals, and principles of feeding; fattening of animals; management of sheep. So far as possible the labor of the field is made to illustrate all these points. Many of the best works on these subjects, both American and foreign, are used for reference in connection with the lectures. This class also received a six weeks' course of instruction in Landscape Gardening, each student being required to form a plan in detail of some plat of ground, under some supposed circumstances.

In addition to the regular rhetorical exercises comprising essays and declamations, each member of the Senior and Junior classes has written and delivered in public, several orations during the year. They have made good progress, and the exercise has been found very beneficial.

In consequence of the non-completion of the new Laboratory in season for the usual instruction in Chemical Analysis to the Sophomore Class for the second term of last year, the lectures in Agricultural Chemistry usually given in the first term of the Junior year were given in the last term of the Sophomore year, and this Class pursued Analytical Chemistry during the first term of the Junior year. This Class received eighty-six lessons of three hours each. Each member of the Class analyzed at least one hundred different substances. Quite a large number made analyses of substances quantitively, determining the percentage composition of ores, marls, etc.

During the second term the Juniors received instruction in Chemical Physics; the recitations being fully illustrated by appropriate experiments. Twenty-seven lectures on Meteorology were given, in which the facts and principles of the science, so far as known, were placed before the Class, together with the results reached by the observations made by the United States Signal Service. In Physiology this Class received a course of lectures upon Comparative Osteology, comprising the anatomy, structure, and functions of all the bones, illustrated by skeletons; also, a course of lectures on the Circulatory System, illustrated by drawings. In addition, the Class has gone over nearly the whole of Dalton's Human Physiology. Whately's Rhetoric was studied through the entire first term by the Junior Class, and satisfactory progress made.

The Rhetorical exercises of the Juniors and Seniors have showed for the most part, care and labor. Especial pains have been taken to encourage strength and clearness in thought and expression.