MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 277 



inspects all the dormitories every week, making the most care- 

 ful and minute examination as to the orderly and cleanly 

 habits of the young men. 



The farm, under the careful and intelligent management of 

 Mr. Dillon, is constantly improving, and shows, for the last 

 year, quite satisfactory results, though it has of course to 

 contend with many and quite necessary obstacles to the most 

 profitable returns. The necessity of carrying out experiments 

 in manures, in rotations, in various machinery and modes of 

 cultivation is naturally at times quite unremuuerative. The 

 labor of the students is, though well paid, not so economical 

 as the steady employment of hands skilled in the performance 

 of the various farm-work. Some of the experiments with 

 new machinery have however proved very satisfactory, espe- 

 cially the Dibble machine, imported from Germany, which 

 sows eight rows at a passage ; and the Riihen Hack machine 

 or root-cultivator, also a German invention, which cultivates 

 five rows at a passage. The experiment of planting and cul- 

 tivating corn with these machines without hand labor was 

 very successful. 



Hay was in a great measure cut and housed the same day, 

 and is sweet and well-colored. When it is considered that 

 labor must be laid out in beautifying the farm, and in fitting 

 it for its various purposes of a stock-raising and seed-grow- 

 ing farm ; a nursery, a botanical garden, conservatory, ar- 

 boretum ; apple, pear and peach orchard; vineyard, market- 

 garden, experimental station, veterinary hospital, and a parade- 

 ground ; and all this to be performed as economically as pos- 

 sible, and at the same time to make the works subserve the 

 two important offices of furnishing employment and practical 

 instruction to the students,* it is quite astonishing that the 

 crops on the farm are so good and the stock so well cared for. 



The conservatory is a beautiful and instructive feature of the 

 college. Like all other blessings, however, it eminently sug- 

 gests the great advantage of a large increase of glass, this 

 being now a department which might be made very remuner- 

 ative to the college, and at the same time of great benefit to 

 the students. 



* Answers by J. C. Dillon to interrogatories propounded by the Commissioner of 

 Agriculture. 



