40 



STATE BOARD OF ACJKICULTURE. 



RErOKT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY AM) FOKE«TUV. 



To the President: 



I liave the honor to submit mv report for the year closing June 30, 

 1900: 



During the year students have received instruction in this department 

 as shown in the following table: 



Class. 



Subject. 



Term . 



Senior Thesis ' Fall and spring.. 



Junior Parasitic fungi Fall 



" Weeds Winter, 4 weeks. 



" Grasses Winter, 4 weeks.. 



" Forestry Winter, t; weeks.. 



" Systematic botany Spring. . 



" Trees and shrubs" Spring. . 



Sophomores (Agricultural). Plant histfdogy Winter. 



Sophomores (Women) ' Plant histology Si)ring.. 



Sophomores (Women) Trees and .shrubs Spring.. 



Freshmen (Men and 



women ) Structural botany Fall 



Freshmen (Men a n il 



women) Structural botany Winter, 20 lessons. 



Special students Sugar beets Spring, H weeks... 



Special stuilents Botany Winter, 6 weeks... 



Total. 



Hours 



per 

 week. 



n 



2 



3 



10 



Ko. of 

 Students 

 enrolled. 



1 



36 

 14 

 18 

 31 



39 



5 



33 



17 

 19 



140 



98 



7 

 7 



464 



Fortunately there has been no change in the teaching force during 

 the year. Besides the professor of botany and forestry, an assistant 

 professor devotes half of his time for half of his salary' to teaching, and 

 an instructor all of his time. In other words, the teaching force consists 

 of two and one-half men. Much of this instruction consists in labora- 

 to.py work, hence it is more costly than ordinary class-room teaching. 

 For example, last fall thirty-five juniors were instructed in the study of 

 parasitic fungi, devoting nine hours per week to the subject, requiring 

 the attendance of two teachers. Had the subject been history or some- 

 thing of the kind, one person alone would properly have taught the class 

 in five hours. When we take into account the extra time required of 

 one or both teachers in botany to prepare specimens for the class, out of 

 class hours, it will be found that to teach these juniors botany costs 

 four to five times as much as it would cost to teach them history. But 

 this extra cost gives a valuable training to be obtained in no other way. 



During the spring term of the past year there was less class-room 

 work in botany than last year, or less than there will be next year. This 

 is accounted for by the fact that the subject of trees and shrubs in the 

 course has been shifted from the sophomore year to the junior year. 



Let no person venture to gauge the amount of work performed in the 

 department, by looking over the schedule of classes as written above I 



