No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 223 



REPORT OF THK GEOLOGIST. 



BY JJH. M. K. Wauswoktu, StuU' Ciill-ent, 



At the time of my appointment to the office 1 now hold under 

 the direction of your honorable iJoard, it was stated to you that 

 my tirst duty would have to be to the students under my charge, 

 at The Pennsylvania State College, but that 1 was willing to give 

 such time as i could find to the duties of (jeologist. Since my es- 

 tablishment in my present position, my time has been almost ex- 

 clusively given to reorganizing the Department, and rearranging 

 and enlarging the collections. The result lias been most gratifying 

 in the increased interest taicen bv the students, and in the further 

 fact that the attendance has been doubled within a year. 



The chief interest to your honorable JBoard lies in this: That 

 part of the above instruction is given to the students of the State 

 College of agriculture. At the outset, the students in the agricul- 

 tural course had instruction under me, only, for one semester for 

 three hours a v>eek, in geology. Such an arrangement as this was 

 unsatisfactory, as these students had to be united in one class 

 with others who had had a preparation more or less satisfactory 

 in the preliminary study of minerals and rocks. After calling 

 the attention of the faculty or the School of Agriculture to the 

 difhculty, I \sas kindly allowed two hours during the first half, and 

 three hours during the second half of the second semester of the 

 freshman year, and one hour during the first semester of the sopho- 

 more year, for the preparatory studies. \\ hile an improvement, the 

 time granted is insufficient and too fragmentary for satisfactory 

 work. • I ; 



The position of Geologist for your Board has brought to me also 

 numerous samples of rocks and minerals, to be determined for 

 members of our rural communities, scattered all over the State. 

 These determinations relate principally to clays, ores of iron, man- 

 ganese and copper, and sujjposed cobalt, silver, gold, coal, etc. The 

 amount of ignorance displayed in these matters, and the stubborn 

 unwillingness, on the part of the inquirers, to accept the truth, 

 all point to the preceding moral, thai time, more time, ought to be 

 given in all of our agricultural courses, to practical instruction in 

 mineralogy, petrography and general and economic geology. 



