414 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Wilcox of Nawiliwili, S.I. ; and the second, of thirty dollars, 

 to Austin Peters of Boston. The graduating class numbered 

 nineteen, who, having completed the required course of study 

 and examinations, received the degree of Bachelor of Science ; 

 and seven of the number, who were matriculants of the Bos- 

 ton University, received the diplomas of that institution. A 

 valuable addition has been recently made to the natural- 

 history cabinet of the college by a donation from Winfred 

 A. Stearns, a young naturalist of Amherst. It consists of 

 many thousand specimens in the departments of mineralogy, 

 entomology, and conchology, and a large collection of the 

 nests and eggs of the birds of New England. Want of room 

 and cases have seriously interfered with its arrangement in 

 suitable order for exhibition and study ; but yet it is a great 

 acquisition to this department. For want of means the 

 improvements of the year on the land or buildings have been 

 few, and those more in the direction of preserving what we 

 have from unavoidable decay and deterioration than of 

 changes for permanent improvement. On the farm, work 

 in gradually developing the arranged system of drainage, 

 and breaking up and subduing the uncultivated land near 

 the western boundary, was discontinued in the fall of 1879, 

 and has not been renewed ; but, as already stated, fourteen 

 acres of the pasture, which was becoming infested with small 

 shrubs and coarse grasses, have been ploughed and reseeded, 

 and there has been much grading and reseeding done near 

 the L. D. Cowles homestead. The Durfee Plant-House, 

 which was getting seriously out of repair by the settling of 

 the arches of the roof, and the decay of the sills, the floors, 

 and benches, has been repaired by lifting the arches, and 

 supporting them with iron standards, putting down new 

 floors, benches, and shelves, and painting the entire structure 

 inside and out ; the whole cost of which has been more than 

 six hundred dollars. At an early day it will require further 

 repairs on the foundations, sills, and walls of the propagating- 

 pits. By act of the last Legislature, the Massachusetts Cen- 

 tral Railroad was granted the right of way to cross the 

 College Farm ; and the surveys have been made, and the per- 

 manent line definitely located. The line runs from the south 

 farm-bound in a north-west direction on a long curve, through 

 the full width of the estate, about thirty rods west of the 



