ANNUAL MEETING. 201 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 



The Committee appointed by the Board of Agriculture to 

 visit the Agricultural College, and examine the senior class 

 in agriculture, attended to that duty June 23, 1880. 



Only one member of the Committee reached the college in 

 the morning in season to participate in the public exercises 

 as advertised ; and Mr. Benjamin P. Ware of Marblehead, a 

 member of our Board, and W. L. Warner of Sunderland, 

 president of the Hampshire Agricultural Society, very kindly 

 assisted your Committee in the examination. 



The class was small in numbers ; but we hope and trust 

 that this deficiency was more than compensated for in the 

 quality of brain, culture, and acquirements of the young 

 men. 



The public examination continued for two hours, embra- 

 cing a variety of topics : such as soils, their composition, 

 origin, varieties, characteristics, adaptations, the methods and 

 effects of tillage ; 



Plants, their structure : organs of plants and their offices, 

 their composition, and the sources from which the materials 

 of their structure are obtained ; 



Soils and plants, the effect on the soil of natural plant- 

 growth, and the effect of artificial production ; 



The conditions of an exhausted soil, fertilization of the 

 soil, agents and substances employed for this purpose, how 

 obtained, and their influences on soils and plants; 



Farm management, economy, and accounts ; selection, 

 division, and cropping of a farm ; 



Growing grain as a market-product, and its effect on the 

 farm ; 



The influence of agriculture on national character, wealth, 

 and prosperity ; and several other topics. 



The young men acquitted themselves very creditably, 

 showing that they had been carefully and thoroughly in- 

 structed in general principles, answering questions readily 

 and intelligently, expressing their thoughts in good English, 

 clearly, properly, concisely. 



Essays were submitted for our examination, written by the 

 class in the presence of President Stockbridge, without the 

 aid of books, upon topics given out by him at the time. 



