ANNUAL REPORT. 137 



lands with the college are to give practical illustration to 

 schoolroom instruction, to give opportunity for experiments 

 with soils, crops, and farm-stock, to give students the privi- 

 lege of learning something of farm-labor, or to assist them- 

 selves to a limited extent by labor-wages, it may be seriously 

 considered whether they could not be as well or even better 

 secured with one hundred or one hundred and fifty acres 

 of suitable variety and quality, as with four hundred in an 

 unimproved condition, and whose improvement when at- 

 tempted is practically a failure for want of sufficient means. 

 If the income of the college, and the number of students, 

 is permanently to remain as at present, it may be a matter 

 wortliy of thought whether that portion of tlie large farm 

 now held, which is not needed for school purposes and 

 experiment, might not be sold at some opportune time, and 

 the avails invested for the increase of the annual income. 



HORTICXJLTCTRAL DEPARTIHENT. 



The horticultural and botanical department has been con- 

 ducted by Professor Maynard with his usual skill and faith- 

 fulness. Its value for educational purposes, not only to the 

 students of the college, but also to the general community, 

 is every year becoming more apparent. While this is its 

 chief value, the production and sale of choice varieties of 

 plants, but especially of nursery stock, is highly appreciated, 

 and the demand constantly increasing. The sales from this 

 department during the year have amounted to the sum of 

 $2,792.76. For details respecting it, reference is made to 

 the report of Professor Maynard annexed. 



EXPERIMENT STATION. 



The experiment station organized and put in operation at 

 the college in the spring of 1878, on the basis of a meager 

 private donation, not having been supported by public or 

 private aid, and the officers upon whom devolved the re- 

 sponsibility of conducting it having been crowded with 

 increased duties in other directions incident to the changes 

 of the following year, has been necessarily suspended, so far 

 as any systematic assigned work is concerned. The Sixteenth 

 Annual Report contains a detailed account of the finished 

 work, and of the investigations then in progress. 



