DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 51 



Dr, Beal had more team work than Mr. Kiiapper. The Board propose to in- 

 crease the amount of team work allowed to the department. 



Mr. Knapper's report made in August, 1882, will be appended. As the 

 iiecessiLy of making the department moi'e united and of giving it a represent- 

 ation in the faculty has induced tlie Board to create and till a chair of horti- 

 culture, and as this will render the office held by Mr. Knapper unnecessary, I 

 take this occasion to say that Mr. Knapper iias shown himself a skillful man- 

 ager, as successful in the employment of students as officers usually are at 

 first. He possesses the respect and esteem of the students, and is known as a 

 gentleman, considerate of the rights and regardful of the wishes of all. I 

 do not remember any more successful management of the work on the whole 

 than his, unci I regret to lose both his services and his society. 



THE ORCHARDS. 



The apple orchard was planted by President Williams in 1858. Successive 

 superintendents of the Horticultural Department have failed to make of it a 

 good orchard. Dr. Beal especially tried many experiments in methods of cul- 

 tivation, but at last pronounced the orchard wholly unsatisfactory. Mr. 

 Knapper advised making fire-wood of it, but it not seeming best to cut down 

 an orchard which occasionally gives a fair crop, he tried the heroic treatment 

 of pruning quite large branches off the trees, reforming their shape, and open- 

 ing the blanches to the sun. He thinks the same process should be repeated 

 two years longer. It is too early to report on the effect of this treatment. 



It is not meant that the apple orchard does not give us fruit, but that it 

 fails to meet the ideal of a good orchard, or even to compare favorably with 

 excellent orchards in the State. 



On a clay soil near the west entrance, Dr. Beal planted an orchard of small 

 fruit and a vineyard, which are a part of the Horticultural Department. 

 There is a small vineyard, also, near Wells Hall, on terraces in the bank lead- 

 ing to the low lands along the river, and there are raspberries and strawber- 

 ries near the apple orchard. 



The vegetable garden is west of the apple orchard, and a prominent part of 

 the department. 



The greenhouse and borders near it are a great attraction to visitors. The 

 beds of variegated leaved plants and of flowers, both near the greenhouse and 

 about the grounds have been made by Mr. Cassidy (here since 1874) very 

 beautiful. 



CONCLUSION. 



All the departments have made progress in their development. Officers 

 have been more and more relieved of work in studies not related to their pro- 

 fessorshi[)s; means of illustration have been multiplied, the library enlarged, 

 and increased accommodations given to us, by a generous State acting through 

 their legislatures. On our part, the Board have given much time and care to 

 the matiagement of these legislative gifts, and the faculty have been untiring 

 in their work in their departments and for the College at large. 



DEATH OF HON. JAMES AVEBSTER C'HILDS. 



Subsequently to the writing of my report comes the news of the death of 

 Hon. James Webster Childs, member of the State Board of Agriculture. A 

 parting tribute to his many excellencies of character and his highly useful 



