42 Agronomy. 



Agronomy ]<^), Tropical Agriculture, has been added to the 

 courses offered ijy the Department. 



The aim has been also to make more useful and vital the course 

 in Farm Practice. There are so many necessary limitations in a 

 course of this sort that it has been impossible to realize our ideal, 

 but it is believed that some progress is being made. 



A rather important departure has been made in. the selection of a 

 non-resident lecturer to give a special and continuous course of lec- 

 tures. Dr. Jacob G. Lipman, Soil Chemist and Bacteriologist of the 

 New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, New Brunswick, 

 N. J., has been engaged to give a series of ten lectures on soil bac- 

 teriology to students of the Department of Agronomy. 



In my last report I discussed at some length the aims, facilities 

 and needs of the Department of Agronomy and the relation of the 

 several farms in connection therewith, which need not be repeated 

 here. At this time, however, I wish to refer to the present need for 

 barns for the work of the College of Agriculture, especially for the 

 development of work in Animal Husbandry. I have already placed 

 in your hands a sketch for a set of farm buildings comprising ad- 

 ministration barn, which would include the horses; and cattle barn, 

 which would make provision for milch cows, breeding stock and beef 

 cattle, and contain storage for hay, grain, roots and silage ; a sheep 

 barn ; and a piggery. The plan contemplates placing the administra- 

 tion barn, the cattle barn and the sheep barn in rather close proxim- 

 ity, so arranged that the manure can be conveyed readily to a manure 

 shed, while the piggery would be placed some distance from the 

 other buildings. It is recommended that this set of buildings be 

 placed south and east of the University filtration plant. 



A pressmg need of the Department of Agronomy at this time is a 

 set ©f glass houses for the purpose of carrying on instruction and 

 experiments with growing plants dm-ing the college year. From the 

 first of November to the first of Ai)ril there is very little outdoor 

 growth at Ithaca, and, therefore, very little instruction can be given 

 or experiments made upon the growth of ])]ants except under cover. 

 The present demand for space has entirely outgrown the small house 

 connected with the insectary. It is recommended that three glass 

 houses be built, each 60 x 20 feet ; one for experiment station work, 

 one for advanced and post graduate students, and one for the ele- 

 mentary instruction. These three could be jilaced side by side and 

 connected at one end with a potting shed about 30x40 feet. It is 

 recommended that these houses be j^laced north of the new agronomy 



