54 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



connection of beat, light and electricity with the growth of plants, 

 nature and sources of the food of plants, chemical changes attend- 

 ing vegetable growth, chemistry of the various processes of the 

 farm, as plowing, draining, &c., exhaustion of soils, and methods 

 of chemically improving them, by mineral, vegetable and animal 

 manures, and by indirect methods, rotation of crops, chemical 

 composition of various crops and their uses as food, feeding, hous- 

 ing and care of stock, the chemistry of the dairy, nutritive and 

 fattening qualities of the different articles of food and its prepara- 

 tion for animals and man. 



In Botany, the student must first become intimately acquainted 

 with structural and phj^siological botany with the aid of living and 

 dried specimens, diagrams, and microscopes for the examination of 

 minute structure. He then may proceed to the investigation of 

 systematic botany, by dissecting and inspecting a sufficient num- 

 ber of our native plants to become acquainted with the more 

 important natural families. 



A Botanical Garden, containing specimens of every tree, shrub 

 and plant, which will endure the climate, and an ample Herbarium 

 would greatly assist in obtaining a knowledge of this science. The 

 relations of botany to Horticultural operations, and the principles 

 concerned in those operations can be intelligently explained and 

 comprehended in the gardens and grounds. 



There the student can have abundant practice in propagating 

 plants from seeds, in budding, layering and grafting. He may 

 also by cross breeding obtain new varieties of fruits, by removing 

 the anthers from the blossom of one tree, and dusting upon its pis- 

 til pollen from the stamens of the flower from another tree, and 

 subsequently planting the seeds obtained from the resulting fruits. 

 In this way many new and desirable fruits, ornamental shrubs and 

 flowers have been obtained. This is only one of the many appli- 

 cations of science. 



Zoology and Animal Physiology. Instruction in this depart- 

 ment would consist of recitations and lectures, illustrated as far as 

 practicable by specimens of native and foreign animals, diagrams, 

 by dissections of animals, and inspection of minute structure by 

 the microscope, to make the student familiaV with the appearance 

 and relations of the various organs of the system in health, and the 

 changes produced by disease. He may be led to the investigation 

 of the Anatomy and Physiology of the organs of locomotion, diges- 



