448 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS. 



The work of the mathematical department during the past 

 year had been condacted upon the plan indicated in the last 

 annual report. The only variation in the amount or order 

 of work indicated in that schedule was the substitution of 

 nine hours instead of five hours for instruction in survevinor 

 during the third term. Much of this time was occupied in 

 actual field practice, making surveys by various methods, 

 and plotting and calculating areas from the notes. The 

 revised course increases slightly the time devoted to mathe- 

 matical studies, but the changes are so immaterial that the 

 schedule presented in the present report may be referred to 

 for an outline of the work of this department during the 

 past as well as the present year. 



Some obstacles to satisfactory work in this department 

 still present themselves. Although the average scholarship 

 of the present freshman class is creditable, and in the case 

 of a few individuals very gratifying, there is a greater 

 diversity of ability and attainment than is noticeable in 

 institutions whose students have all been subjected to a 

 somewhat uniform course of preparatory training. As a 

 result, there is difficulty in allotting work sufficiently rigid 

 to properly occupy the better trained members of the class, 

 which shall not overburden and discourage the less forward 

 ones. This evil manifests itself especially in the study of 

 algebra. The progress of the class during the past term 

 has therefore been retarded by the necessity of an efibrt to 

 bring the poorly trained students into line. It is impossible 

 to entirely obviate this difficulty by increasing the require- 

 ments for admission. The remedy lies in the hands of the 

 teachers of high schools throughout the State, upon whom 



