ANNUAL REPORT. 133 



late the members of the class to excel, and temporarily 

 constitute the absorbing feature of the exercise, to the 

 friends of the college and of agriculture it has a vastly 

 more important phase. The topics selected for tlie examina- 

 tion are intended, as far as possible, to embrace the whole 

 field of scientific agriculture, and the best modes of farm 

 practice in all its details. And their discussion is not only 

 an exhibit of the culture and proficiency of the members of 

 the class, but also of the correctness, the thoroughness, 

 and the practicability of the instruction in this most impor- 

 tant field of the college work. There is no better method 

 for fault-finders and friends, to determine whether the in- 

 struction is fulfilling its mission, than by attending and 

 participating in these annual examinations as examiners, 

 as all are earnestly urged to do. In this examination the 

 first prize was awarded to Almon H. Stone of Phillipston, 

 and the second to William G. Lee of Amherst. The gold 

 medals of the Farnsworth Prizes were awarded to Samuel C. 

 Damon of Lancaster, and David O. Nourse of Bolton ; and 

 the silver medals, to John E. Wilder of Lancaster, and 

 Homer J. Wheeler of Bolton. The Hills Botanical Prizes, 

 for the best general herbarium and the best collection of 

 native woods, were awarded, the first to Almon H. Stone 

 of Phillipston, and the second to William C. Parker of 

 Wakefield. 



Professors Goodell, Goessmann, Graves, Maynard, and 

 Morris have each conducted their departments with ability 

 and a good measure of success, though all, but especially the 

 physical department, under the care of Professor Graves, are 

 crippled by a deficiency of apparatus to make the instruction 

 more clear and complete. The wants of the agricultural 

 department are radical, and its equipment radically defective, 

 and must remain so, until, by the acquisition of large means, 

 the way is opened for the erection of commodious buildings, 

 and the collection of illustrative material. 



IMPROVEMENTS OF THE YEAR. 



Great as are all the school wants which have been last 

 enumerated, they have not been considered so immediately 

 and economically pressing as the need of repairs to many of 

 the buildings, some of which, by thirteen years' use and 



