86 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



as the agents of the Commonwealth, the history and the 

 record of the College have, on the whole, been honorable, 

 and highly creditable to the State. It was opened for the ad- 

 mission of students in 1867 ; and since that time more than 

 six hundred and fifty have been admitted on examination 

 or diploma. The yearly average number of students has 

 exceeded a hundred. Its first class graduated in 1871 ; and 

 it has graduated a hundred and fifty-seven in all, more than 

 a third of whom are devoting themselves exclusively to agri- 

 culture, and pursuits intimately connected with it. In addi- 

 tion, it has given instruction to four hundred others who 

 have taken partial courses in agriculture, and returned to the 

 farms from which they came. 



The facilities gathered there for illustration, and for im- 

 parting a sound and substantial education, in which the natu- 

 ral sciences constitute the basis, are much greater than has 

 been commonly supposed. The College library consists of 

 over two thousand volumes, mostly on technical subjects, 

 embracing every department of agriculture and the natural 

 sciences. The Knowlton Herbarium contains more than 

 ten thousand species of catalogued plants and botanical 

 specimens. The State cabinet of geology, ornithology, and 

 entomology, is complete in its illustration of the natural 

 history of Massachusetts. The chemical laboratory has ac- 

 commodations for seventy students. This department is in 

 a high state of efficiency. Practical laboratory work is re- 

 quired of each student daily for an entire year. 



The department of physics and civil engineering, under 

 the charge of Professor Graves, is well equipped with appa- 

 ratus ; and practical field-work in surveying, laying out roads, 

 &c, is required of every student, sufficient to give him a 

 knowledge of the most approved instruments, and methods 

 to be pursued under a great variety of circumstances. The 

 military department, required, officered, and equipped by 

 the General Government, and under the charge of an accom- 

 plished army officer, a graduate of West Point, affords un- 

 surpassed facilities for valuable discipline, and is educating 

 far more thoroughly and completely than any militia system 

 can be expected to do, a large number of young men, who 

 go out capable of serving as officers or soldiers in case of 

 emergency. This feature of the course of study and train- 



