REPORT OF PRESIDENT WILLITS. xix 



THE HOKTICULTUEAL DEPAKTMENT. 



The sciences are progressive, and in their advance tend more and more to 

 ,-a subdivision of work. When Agricultural Colleges were first established 

 Botany, Forestry, Horticulture and Landscape Gardening were all included 

 in one department. That was the case with our College. But as the years 

 rolled along it was manifest that the field was too broad for one man, and 

 wisely some years ago the Board divided the work and made of it two pro- 

 fessorships. A building was erected and ample facilities furnished for 

 Botany and Forestry. But nothing has been done for Horticulture and 

 Landscape Gardening. There is no building and but few tools, and the 

 ■^expenditures have been sporadic, as the exigencies of other well-established 

 departments might permit. The time has now come for a systematic 

 development of this department, which has been too long neglected. In 

 fact, while our College as a whole stands without a superior in the land, in 

 this particular feature it is far behind many others. The importance of fruit 

 ■culture is so great in this State, and the value of new and acclimated kinds and 

 varieties is so far beyond comj^utation, that the attention of the Legislature 

 needs only to be called to it to meet with a liberal response. The horticult- 

 urists of the State are demanding with such vigor that this department 

 should receive this recognition, that I beg leave to ask you to present a lib- 

 eral estimate of its wants to the Legislature. At the date of this report the 

 Professor in Horticulture has under him some 150 students (the freshman 

 and junior classes) in manual labor, and with hardly half tools enough to 

 supply them ; with an office in a dingy hole in the basement of one of our 

 buildings, in which basement is his only storeroom for tools, vegetables, and 

 in which all the records for work and the distribution of gangs to their 

 labor are kept and made. In fine, all the facilities of even a fair market 

 gardener are wanting — to say nothing of lecture and apparatus rooms and 

 facilities for experimental work which the importance of the subject de- 

 mands. 



STEAM POWEK AJfD WATER WORKS. 



The steam power is entirely inadequate for the heating of the buildings 

 ■and for the power in the Mechanical Department. It was barely sufficient 

 before the shops were added. It is imperative that two additional boilers be 

 provided, also another engine for the shops. The water supply for domestic 

 purposes has this year proven precarious. The long dry season has dried up 

 several of the wells and rendered most of the others at times unsuitable for 

 use. The large increase of students and the large number of visitors, some- 

 times running into the hundreds, have drawn so heavily upon the wells that 

 it is a matter of dread to enter upon another year of possible drouth. The 

 water for washing, etc., is now pumped from the river, but it has been so 

 low this year as to make it of questionable quality for ablution purposes. 



It is, therefore, desirable that an artesian well be sunk near the boiler- 

 house and pumps, so that a permanent supply of pure water be obtained if 

 possible, and that the tank be connected with the homes of the professors 

 tj suitable mains. 



ACCOMMODATIONS FOR STUDENTS AND PROFESSORS. 



I can but repeat or call attention to my last report relative to the pressing 



