DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 



EEPOKT OF THE PEESIDENT. 



The reports of the Faculty and of the various oflicers of the institution will 

 give in detail the operations of the college for the partial year, from Dec. 1, 

 1875, to Sept. 30, 1876, inclusive. Previous reports have been made to cover 

 the year from the first of each December to the 30th of the November preced- 

 ing. In many respects the 30tli of I^ovember makes a more convenient close 

 than the present date, since the school year is not yet ended, the labor accounts 

 are unsettled, and the farm crops not in a condition for exact measurement and 

 valuation. Tlie history of a given field made out for the fiscal year of the State 

 (Sept, 30), is not such a year's history of the field as would generally be sought. 

 A representation of these difficulties was made to the Chairman of the Com- 

 mittees on the College of the last Legislature, with the suggestion that our fiscal 

 year should end Nov. 30. As nothing was done with the matter, we make our 

 reports, as required, up to the close of the State fiscal year. 



I refer with 2)leasure to the reports of the officers, as showing the spirit of 

 study that has prevailed amongst the students, and tlie jn'ogress they have made 

 in their lessons. The officers in charge of the work give a like testimony in re- 

 gard to the labor of students. They have never worked with more regularity 

 and faithfulness, and this feature of the College, the failure of which has been 

 annually jiredicted, has grown stronger from the first day of the College, 



It is often said that all labor-schools have failed, or else have abandoned the 

 system. This may be true ; but from the first the attempt has been made here 

 to make the labor as much educational as possible, ^nthout having it lose its 

 character of effective work. Class-room instruction and the labor are planned 

 so as to illustrate each other. The practical and theoretical go hand in hand. 

 Class instruction is given not in the class-room only, but in the barn-yard, the 

 field, the orchard, the greenhouse, apiary, vegetable garden, and other places 

 where work is done. I have, in several instances, met parties of students out 

 upon tlie farm, examining what had been brought to their notice in the class 

 room. 



At the same time the students are taught to look upon their labor as that 

 which should be effective, and like what they would themselves require of hired 

 men. 



The result of this system, and of the practical nature of the course of study 



