THE STATE COLLEGE. 59^ 



impossible to teach tiie structure, the growth and the use of 

 plants as these should be taught. The State College has 

 ample grounds. The means of teaching by means of the 

 objects themselves are at hand. The course of instruction 

 does not begin with putting a book into the hands of the 

 pupil. There you will see Professor Maynard with his arms 

 full of specimens from the garden or the plant house enter- 

 ing the class room. The specimens are put in the hands of 

 the pupils, and under the direction of the professor the pupils 

 find by their own study the facts to be learned. The stu- 

 dents do not study words, they study things. They do not 

 find out what others have said about things. They study, 

 and find what they can say of that which they study. This 

 mode of teaching is not possible everywhere. It is possible 

 at the State College because the botanical class-room is near 

 the plant house, and in the midst of wide gardens and fields 

 filled with a great variety of plants. That such instruction 

 is needed is evident from the utterances of many who have 

 failed to receive it. It is often said that the advancement a 

 pupil makes is in proportion to the interest which the study 

 excites. Which is most interesting to 3^ou, to read about a 

 beautiful tree or flower, or to see it ? Classes become in- 

 tensely interested in the study of plants themselves, who 

 would be disgusted with the mere study of books. 



The same method will be pursued in the study of minerals 

 as in the study of plants. The specimens will be in the 

 hands of the students, and under the direction of a skilful 

 teacher they will gain a knowledge of the minerals by their 

 own study. In the opportunities for the study of geology^ 

 it may be questioned whether any other section of the State 

 ofiers equal advantages. It is a region that presents a great 

 variety of formations, while the careful study and observation 

 of Hitchcock, and other eminent geologists, have rendered 

 the whole region a sort of labelled museum of geology. In 

 the study of animals the methods pursued are those so suc- 

 cessfully used by the great Agassiz. 



The chemical department, through all the vicissitudes of 

 the college, has ever held a high rank. The amount of prac- 

 tical work that has been done in the chemical laboratory is. 

 very large. The chemical work of the experiment station 



