DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 37 



requisite to admission to some Eastern scientific schools to wliich our graduates 

 sometimes resort, while the German is not. We follow, in requiring French, 

 most of scientific schools of the land. 



The danger in an agricultural school where Greek and Latin are not taught, 

 is that in 2)lace of these studies there will not be put something calculated, to 

 give the student the ability to present his observations, experiments, and rea- 

 soning in a way to command attention. The study of another language is a 

 discipline in giving order to one's thoughts, due jirominence to the parts of the 

 matter he would write about or speak about, and correctness and force to his 

 expression, and both English and French occupy but scant time for the secur- 

 ing of these results. 



In the Junior year a term's course of lectures is given to English Literature. 

 A connected, and philosophical review of this literature is given, and an attempt 

 made to imbue the students with a love of reading. The Juniors read, select 

 dramas of Shakspeare and the Seniors portions of Milton in evening classes. 

 As the students have a very efficient society for the study of science, so the 

 societies and clubs of the College have done excellent work in the reading of 

 poetry, history, political economy and other branches of study. The library 

 furnishes a fair supply of good works to read. 



POLITICAL ECOlSrOMT, PHILOSOPHY. 



History. — In the Freshman year a term's study is given to the history of 

 Greece and Eome. It is a mere beginning of historical study, but serves an 

 educational purpose in interesting the student in history. Most of the Pro- 

 fessors give a lecture or two on the history of the subjects they teach, and the 

 study of the Constitution of the United States is preceded by some study of 

 United States History. 



Philosophi/. — Psychology receives a term's study; Moral Philosophy one-half 

 term; Political Eeconomy one-half term's lectures by Professor Fairchild; 

 Inductive Logic one-half term, and the Constitution of the United States one- 

 half term. "A farmer," said President Williams in his inaugural address in 

 1857, is a citizen amenable to the laws, and, in a humbler or a wider range, may 

 become an exponent of society. He should be able to execute, therefore, the 

 duties of even responsible stations, with self reliance and intelligence." 



There is great need of instruction in the branches of study just named. With 

 iis equal a distribution of work as we could devise. Professor Ingersoll, with the 

 care of the Farm Department upon his shoulders, takes classes in French, and 

 if French were not taught at all, it would be in whatever else took its place. 

 Professor Beal takes History entirely apart from his own department, and 

 Professor Fairchild is weighed down with the many studies assigned to him. 

 In our desire not to increase the expenses of the College we have let the Col- 

 lege grow from the period when two small classes were united in their studies 

 to a condition when the higher classes are too large to unite, and when the 

 lower ones are so large as to have to be divided into sections, with no corres- 

 ponding increase of teaching force. 



LECTURES. 



Another element of instruction is a series of fortnightly lectures given to the 

 students in a body by tiie members of tlie faculty in rotation. Sometimes the 

 place of some professor is supplied by some gentleman outside of the College. 

 In these lectures there is a wide range of topics. Thus during the present year 



