416 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the students could not have full employment on the farm ; 

 and, as winter drill in the field was impracticable, a drill-hall 

 was provided in the third or attic story of the laboratory 

 building. But the marching and evolutions of the battalion, 

 continued for ten years, have so strained and weakened the 

 structure, as to create serious apprehension of its complete 

 ruin : therefore, for three years, its use for this purpose has 

 been discontinued, and the winter drill, so important in the 

 general system, has been practically abandoned. Estimates 

 were made, by a practical builder, of the cost of such repairs 

 and supports as were considered necessary to make the struc- 

 ture secure and safe to the battalion ; but it has been beyond 

 our power to make the necessary repairs and improvements. 

 The agricultural department has always suffered for want 

 of proper accommodations and appliances, and for apparatus 

 and objects for lecture instruction. To make it thoroughly 

 effective and useful, the professor should have an ample 

 lecture-room, with cabinet-rooms adjoining, where specimen- 

 crops, tools, implements, and farm machines and appliances 

 in all its departments, could be collected and arranged for 

 use before his classes, and for private study. Such a cabinet 

 would cost no money, but would be of incalculable advan- 

 tage to the students, and a place of resort and instruction 

 to the farmers of the State. A suitable building could be 

 erected for fifteen thousand dollars ; and on the earth in its 

 basement a military drill-room could be provided, for winter 

 and stormy weather, which would be convenient, and beyond 

 the possibility of injury by the marching and evolutions of 

 the cadets. B}^ this method the expense of repairs on the 

 present hall would be avoided; and it could be used for other 

 college purposes, and the suffering want of the agricultural 

 department supplied. Repairs and refitting are needed at 

 the boarding-house ; and the kitchen and dining-room furni- 

 ture, which has been in constant use fourteen years, should 

 be replaced by new. The library is far from being what 

 is needed, either in the number of its volumes or its depart- 

 ments ; and it is thus, not because the trustees do not 

 appreciate the great value of books to both instructors and 

 students, but because of their inability to replenish it from 

 }'ear to year with new and standard works for culture, refer- 

 ence, and instruction. When the college was opened, the 



