26 STATE BOATJD OF AGRICULTURE. 



•idvanco our afijriculttiro, to elevnte our social siirvoun(lino;<?, aiul to set forth to the 

 Order tho s]ici'ial advMntii^cs to bo dcrivcMl from {\\\>i Statu insiitiition by our sons 

 and dati_<;litcr.* : tliat the rommittcc 1»(; composed of tlirei' or more meiiiliers Peb'Ctcd 

 from the executive committee and tiie State Graiij^e oHioers. and required to report 

 aninially. We advise sudi committeo be made uj) fiom tlu^se olhcers, ;is they only 

 hold over from year to year, and therefore the only ones from whom a report could 

 be assured. 



Messrs. Ilolloway, Luce and Chiltls were appointed to constitute tliis com- 

 mittee on the College, and the coniinittee has visited the College during the 

 year. 



Meanwhile tlie committee on Education reported that the College had proved 

 a success, recommended tlie establishment of a Veterinary department, and 

 th.e adoption of I'csolutions asking the Legislature to make a liberal ap[)ropria- 

 tion for buildings for the admission of ladies into the College. 



Thus the Farmers' Institutes, the Agricultural Society, the Grange and the 

 State Pomological Society, although no special notice of it has been made in 

 the foregoing remarks, are all helping the College to extend its influence among 

 the practical farmers of the State, while the Alumni, by their outspoken at- 

 tachment to the College, give us great encouragement in our work. 



9 T. C. ABBOT. 



REPORT OF THE PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE AND 



LIBRARIAN. 



To the President of the College : 



The following report is meant to include a brief mention of all the work 

 done under my immediate supervision during the year ending August 31st, 

 1879: 



During the autumn term of 1 878 I gave instruction to the Junior Class in 

 English Literature by a course of fifty daily lectures with daily reviews. The 

 usual ground, including history and relations of the English language, outline 

 of history of literature in England by epochs and ages, and biographical 

 sketches of the leading authors from Chaucer to Burns, with critical re- 

 marks upon selections from each author studied. Tiie course was too brief 

 to be more than an introduction to standard literature, and but brief notices 

 of the writers of this century in England and America accompanied an out- 

 line of more modern cliaractcristics and fame. Chambers' Cyclopoedia of 

 Literature was an eliicient aid to the lectures and the criticism. Tlie class 

 numbered '^7, of whom 21 pa>sed the linal examination at the close of the 

 term. Of six who left to teach before tinishing the course, four have since 

 passed examination ; the others have not yet returned to College. 



The Freshman Class with [)ersons in select couises made two classes in 

 English Composition, one of which numbered 40 and the other 27. The 

 course, during eleven weeks of the autumn term, embraced in Hart's 

 Rhetoric the subjects of punctuation, style, invention and varieties of compo- 

 sition, with weekly exercises in essay writing. The essays were carefully 

 revised under my direction with esi)ecial care for accuracy, neatness aud 



