528 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



It has been said that " there is perhaps no department of 

 science which so nearly concerns the wealth and well-being of 

 the community," and it is safe to add that it is of paramount 

 importance to the farmer from the fact that a large propor- 

 tion of the problems of pecuniary interest, in the applications 

 of science to practical agriculture, can only be solved by 

 lines of inquiry in this newly developed science. 



Satisfactory class work in this department can only be 

 made with the aid of microscopes and other apparatus of the 

 most perfect construction, and especially adapted to the pur- 

 pose, and these are of course expensive. 



An expenditure of from one thousand to fifteen hundred 

 dollars can profitably be made, both in the interest of the 

 students and the college, in providing the necessary appara- 

 tus for class instruction in this department. 



In my report of last year, a suitable class-room, a work- 

 room and an agricultural museum, were mentioned as among 

 the most pressing wants of the department, and my experi- 

 ence in teaching the past year prompts me to give still greater 

 emphasis to these defects in the means of instruction. 



The present class-room for agriculture is the one not 

 occupied at the time for other purposes, and I have given 

 lectures in six different rooms within the year, without any 

 opportunity for the use of diagrams or other essential means 

 of illustration, as they would interfere with the legitimate use 

 of the rooms by the department to which they were assigned. 



If the Massachusetts Agricultural College is to occupy a 

 leading position among the industrial colleges of the country, 

 provision must be made to place agriculture on an equal 

 looting, at least, with other departments in facilities for in- 

 struction and means of illustration. 



MANLY MILES. 



