276 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE. 



EEPORT OF THE EXAMINING COMMITTEE OF THE 

 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE OVERSEERS OF THE COL- 

 LEGE. 



Your Committee appointed to visit the Agricultural College 

 have the honor to report as follows : — 



The Chairman attended the examinations in April and No- 

 veml)er, the other members of the Committee at Commence- 

 ment, and were much pleased with the general appearance of 

 the college, the efficiency and earnestness of its officers and 

 professors, and with the apparent zeal and interest of most of 

 the young men who are availing themselves of the great 

 advantages there presented them. 



It is truly wonderful that in so short a time this admirable 

 institution should have assumed such proportions. Only 

 incorporated in 1863, receiving its first class late in 1867, it 

 now stands in the front rank of ao^ricultural colle2:es in this 

 country, an object of reasonable pride to the Common- 

 wealth. 



The buildings are substantial and well arranged, the dor- 

 mitories most comfortable, the lecture-rooms and drill-rooms 

 large and airy. The new barn, well filled with several varie- 

 ties of pure-bred stock, and with the products of the farm 

 presents a tempting place of resort to the students at all 

 times. 



The classes in April were examined in botany, moral phi- 

 losophy, agricultural chemistry, mathematics, English litera- 

 ture and practical farming; at Commencement (inter alia), 

 in the relation of science to practice in agriculture, renovation 

 of exhausted soils, rotation of crops, manures, stock-hus- 

 bandry and in agriculture as a business pursuit ; in Novem- 

 ber, inroad and railroad construction, zoology, use of manures, 

 chemistry, and militarj^ drill ; all of which were creditable 

 alike to professors and students, the relations between whom 

 seem to be of the most asfreeable nature. 



The military exercises, under the careful instruction of 

 Lieutenant Merrill, U. S. A., were excellent, and are appar- 

 ently viewed by the students more as a recreation than a 

 task. The college is fortunate in havins: such an officer de- 

 tailed by government for this department. This officer also 



