progress, and enables him in three years to go through a course equal to that occupying four years in most agricultural colleges. The earnest student will find no difficulty in preparation for admission, as the subjects he is required to know are taught in all the high schools.

2. Unusual attention is given to French and German. The agricultural literature of these languages is more abundant, and, in its scientific aspects, more advanced than that of English. The educated farmer should be able to read them with ease, in order to keep pace with the rapid progress now making in the theory and practice of his art. It is intended that the student shall read, during the latter part of his course, standard French or German agricultural works, in the place of the usual classics.

3. A feature deemed highly important is experimental chemistry, pursued in the laboratory for several hours daily during the second year. The student, after learning from lecture or text-book the characters which belong to sugar, starch, phosphoric acid, casein, gypsum, guano, and other substances of agricultural significance, takes them into his own hands, prepares, examines, or analyzes them under the teacher's guidance. He thus fixes and makes definite his knowledge, and, what is of the greatest value, he learns how to observe, exercises his vision to accuracy and delicacy, and trains his judgment to rely on proof, and to discover the fallacies and sources of mistake which embarrass the unaccustomed observer. He learns the precautions needful in planning and executing an experiment, acquires confidence in truth, and arrives at a just estimate of his powers of perceiving and appreciating facts. The discipline and culture attainable in this way repay a thousand-fold the time and labor expended in the laboratory, though the student might have but little actual use for his laboratory acquirements in after life. A person of ingenuity would, however, learn much directly beneficial to him; would fall into habits of experimenting that could not fail to make him useful in advancing practical knowledge; would become able, for instance, to study the problems of the manure-shed and feedingtrough with results of high value to himself and the world.

Shorter course. To meet the wants of those who have not time to attend the full course, and especially to accommodate young farmers who cannot leave home occupations during the summer months, the instruction is so arranged that the more important practical topics, viz., practical agriculture, agricultural chemistry and physiology, agricultural zoology, physical geography, forestry, &c., are discussed during the fall and winter terms of each year, (September 13 to April 12, with vacation of two weeks, from December 19 to January 3.) Those who desire can thus attend, during seven months of the year, the shorter course, being such a selection of the most useful exercises from the studies of the full course as will occupy their time profitably.

State students.-Arrangements have been made by the State of Connecticut for admitting to the school a certain number of pupils gratuitously. According to the law, all candidates for this bounty must be citizens of the State, and preference will be given to such as are "fitting themselves for agricultural and mechanical or manufacturing occupations, who are or shall become orphans through the death of a parent in the naval or military service of the United States, and next to them to such as are most in need of pecuniary assistance." The appointments are to be distributed, as far as practicable, among the several counties of the State, in proportion to their population. The appointing board consists of the governor, lieutenant governor, and three senior senators, with the secretary of the school, Professor Brush, to whom applications may be addressed.

KENTUCKY.

The legislature has established the agricultural and mechanical college as one of the several colleges of Kentucky University, recently removed to Lexington.

We learn through private sources that by private enterprise a magnificent estate of about 430 acres, including Ashland, the home of Henry Clay, and an adjoining residence, with finely ornamented grounds, has been already purchased for the agricultural college, and that students will be received in the fall of 1866. The college, though connected with the university, will have a separate government, availing itself, however, of the aid of professors in other depart ments. Already about $250,000 has been procured for the college, and the State has granted its land scrip for 330,000 acres to the institution, on condition that three students from each of the one hundred representative districts be educated

there free of tuition.

NEW YORK.

Mr. John Delafield and others, Ovid, New York, as early as 1853 procured a charter for an agricultural institution to be established at that place, by the name of the New York State Agricultural College. About 700 acres of land were purchased, and buildings erected sufficient to accommodate 150 students. In a report of January, 1860, it is said that a president had been elected, and earnest calls were made upon the public to subscribe the funds necessary for opening the college for students. It appears that the institution was in operation two terms, when, upon the breaking out of the rebellion, the president was called to the field, and the college was closed.

For some reason not publicly explained, the legislature of New York at first granted the avails of the grant of Congress, not to the State agricultural college, but to the people's college at Havana; but, by a subsequent act of 1865, granted the same to the Cornell University, to be received upon certain conditions, unless the people's college should comply with certain other conditions which, it appears, have not been complied with. The principal condition of the grant to the Cornell University was, that Mr. Ezra Cornell should fulfil his offer to give the university $500,000. This he has done, and the institution is to be established at Ithaca, the place of Mr. Cornell's residence, where 200 acres of land have been secured and preparations are making for building, and where, it is hoped, the agricultural college of New York may find a permanent abiding place.

NEW JERSEY.

The legislature of New Jersey has granted to the Rutgers Scientific School, connected with Rutgers College, the income of her land scrip, to be devoted to the uses specified in the act of Congress.

Although the income of the scrip sold was estimated at only $1,200 for the year 1865, eight pupils were received on the 20th of September, suitable rooms and instruction being provided at the college. A farm of 100 acres has been purchased for about $15,000, said to be conveniently located, though at what distance from the college does not appear. Provision is made for forty students, to be received on nomination by the respective counties, free of tuition fees, and an excellent course of study, which want of space compels us to omit, has been established. This experiment, as combining a union with another college and an experimental farm, will be watched with peculiar interest. It has at least the merit of economy and speedy organization.

VERMONT.

The legislature of Vermont has decided to unite her agricultural college with the University of Vermont, at Burlington. The plan of organization is substantially the same as that of Massachusetts, already given. It is proposed to have a farm of 150 acres or more, with stock and implements for illustration and experiment.

KANSAS.

The Kansas State Agricultural College, formerly the Bluemont College, "opened under the auspices of the State in September, 1863," (says the superintendent of public instruction,)" and has been doing a great and good work in the education of teachers, and in training young men and women for active business life, and also in fitting them to graduate from the highest course of a first-class collegiate institution." A president and four professors are employed, and the number of students was 113, as shown by the catalogue of 1865. The ages of the students range from 9 to 27 years, there being a large preparatory class. The college is at Manhattan, and has S0 acres of land, a college building, and the foundation of a library. The annual expenses are estimated at only $4,000 a year. A boarding-house is about to be erected, and the institution, now in its infancy, has large prospective means. lieved to be the only agricultural college where females are instructed. have not at hand any definite programme of its course of study.

MAINE.

It is be

After much discussion, the agricultural college of Maine has been located at Orono, and is to be conducted as an independent institution. No buildings have yet been erected, and no plan of organization has been published.

So far as can be learned, no other agricultural colleges than those above noticed have yet been established. The Maryland Agricultural College, established as early as 1857, and still in operation, has a farm attached, but is rather a school of general education than of agriculture distinctively.

THE MECHANIC ARTS.

The act of Congress provides that colleges maintained by its provisions. shall teach, not only such branches of learning as are related to agriculture, but such as are related to the mechanic arts.

Massachusetts has granted the income of about one-third of her fund to the Institute of Technology, where the mechanic arts receive special attention, and her agricultural college is therefore regarded as released from obligation to teach the mechanic arts, further than they are essential to agriculture.

A good water-power, with shops of various kinds, or steam or caloric power for want of water, are greatly to be desired connected with every agricultural college. The act of Congress calls for earnest attention to the department for instruction in the branches related to the mechanic arts, which seem to have been nearly overlooked. It is hoped that the subject may receive due consideration in the organization and progress of these institutions. We close our paper with the following conclusions:

1. Public sentiment and the public good require a more practical course of education than our literary colleges afford, with more attention to modern and less to ancient languages.

2. Colleges established under the act of Congress should "teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts," both scientifically and practically, so as to prepare their students to labor and to teach in the bighest branches of their respective pursuits.

3. If the means are sufficient, these colleges should be independent, and not united with existing colleges.

4. But one such college in a State should be established. Experimental farms or stations, or subordinate schools, may be organized in counties or dis

tricts.

5. Manual labor for practice and education is essential to education in agriculture, and should be required of all students in colleges which have farms attached.

6. Farms for experiment, illustration, and practice, with live stock and farm implements, are essential to strictly agricultural colleges.

7. Where means for independent institutions are wanting, a half-year system of study in winter, and labor at home or on an experimental farm in summer, is practicable.

8. The promotion of equality, and the dignity of labor, being principal objects in our government, we find no models for our agricultural colleges in the aristocratic communities of Europe.

POPULAR VARIETIES OF HARDY FRUITS.

BY F. R. ELLIOTT, CLEVELAND, OHIO.

The following is a continuation of articles descriptive of fruits, published in the reports of the Department of Agriculture for 1862, 1863, and 1864:

APRICOTS.

LARGE EARLY.

Synonyms-Gros Precoce, De St. Jean, De St. Jean Rouge, Gros d'Alexandre, Gross Früh, Precoce d'Esperin.

Fruit.-Size-medium to large. Form-roundish, oblong, compressed, projecting considerably on the side of the suture. Suture-deep, and terminating in a projecting point towards the back or beyond the axis of the fruit. Skin-downy. Color-pale orange in the shade, fine bright orange red, and marblings or spots of deeper red in the sun. Flesh-pale orange, separating freely from the stone; juicy, rich. Stone-much flattened, oval, sharp on the front, perforated along the back, from base to apex. Kernel-bitter. Seasonearly in July.

Tree. Of vigorous growth, with large, broad oval leaves, tapering towards the footstalks or petiole, and with little ear-like appendages in place of glands. An abundant bearer, an old variety from France, and one of the very best early sorts known.

APPLES.

DUCHESS Of oldenburgh.

Fruit-Size-medium to large. Form-roundish, flattened. Skin-smooth, with a light bluish bloom. Color-light and deep rich red, washed, striped and splashed on a yellow ground. Stem-short. Cavity-acuminate. Basin-deep, wide, even, regular. Calyx-large, nearly closed. Flesh-slightly yellowish white, sharp sub-acid, juicy, and, when well ripened, pretty rich. SeasonSeptember, and often keeping into October.

Tree. An upright, vigorous, hardy and healthy grower, with dark-colored shoots and broad, dark-green, coarsely serrated leaves. A profuse bearer, apparently adapting itself to all soils and situations, and yielding a fruit of great value for marketing and for cooking purposes. It is of Russian origin.

FAMEUSE.

Synonyms.-Pomme de Heige, Sanguineus, Snow.

Fruit.-Size-medium. Form-roundish, somewhat flattened. Skinsmooth. Color-a greenish yellow ground, mostly overspread in the sun with a clean rich red; in the shade the red is pale, streaked, and blotched with the dark-red. Stem-slender. Cavity-narrow and funnel-shaped. Calyx-small. Basin-narrow and shallow. Flesh-remarkably white, tender, juicy, negative