DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 33 



The correspondence of my department continues to increase, and becomes 

 more and more a weiglity task. Several times the past summer, I have liad 

 over fifty letters of inquiry per week. 



EespectfuUy submitted, 



A. J. COOK, 

 Prof, of Entomoh(jxj and Zoology, Curator of the Museum, and Ajnarist. 



EEPORT OF THE PROFESSOR OF BOTANY AND HORTICULTURE. 



To the President of the State Agricultural College: 



The following is a brief report of the teaching and other work done in my 

 department for the College year ending September 30, 1879: 



My report has been so full for the last three years tliat it seems unnecessary 

 to go much into detail except to notice some additions, improvements, or new 

 experiments. 



BOTANY. 



During half of the autumn term the Seniors were daily engaged in vegetable 

 physiology, making notes and drawings with the aid of compound microscopes. 

 Some lectures were given, and some attention was paid to our best books on 

 botany and on the microscope. The class numbered thirty-one, and for most 

 of the time was divided into three sections on account of the small size of the 

 room. 



For nine weeks of the spring term and all of the summer term the members 

 of the Freshman class had daily instruction in this subject. The lessons as- 

 signed were much like those so fully described in my former reports. The 

 class was divided into two sections, each numbering a little over forty mem- 

 bers. Written examinations were given with questions similar in character to 

 those previously printed in my reports. 



At the close of the second term each student presented a thesis on some topic 

 which he had investigated. Each was told where or shown where to find speci- 

 mens for study in the vegetable garden, wild garden, flower garden, or in the 

 fields and waste places. To increase the interest in this work, credit was given 

 for it equal to one-fifth of all the botany of the term. The theses were written 

 on uniform paper with view to binding in a volume. I am much gratified with 

 this part of the work. Some of the discoveries, so far as I know, were new to 

 science, and nearly everything was new to the members of the class. The 

 students enjoyed this and generally felt that they were doing good work in 

 thus learning how to observe and experiment. As a child is pleased with the 

 first steps it ventures to take, so a student feols that lie is gaining power in 

 making original investigations. y/Y 



Tlie topics given were sucli as follows : 



"How do insects beluive on a certain species of plant, and what kind of in- 

 sects visit the plants?" "How are some certain plants fertilized by the 

 wind?" "How do humming birds work on flowers, and on what species?" 

 "How do some plants twine or climb?" "How do certain flowers change the 

 size, length or shape of their parts as they develop to insure cross fertiliza- 

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