224 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



For the young man who expects to follow horticulture in any of its 

 branches, or in fact any other line of agriculture, I would strongly 

 recommend a course at Michigan Agricultural college. I find that the 

 work and value of agricultural colleges are not understood by a majority 

 of the people, and least of all by the class who should be the most 

 deeply interested in them, the farmers themselves. The ideas of their 

 work vary, some thinking that the only instruction given is in handling 

 a hoe or a plow, while on the other hand there are some whose concep- 

 tion of the curriculum is that it consists of a mass of ologies and other 

 trash that are of no earthly use to the farmer. 



In the better class of these colleges the instruction covers four years 

 and is intensely practical. While considerable attention is given to the 

 sciences, they are taught in their relation to the growth of the plants 

 and animals with which the farmer is concerned, botany, chemistry, and 

 entomology" receiving particular attention. In both horticulture and 

 agriculture, the details of the care required by the different crops are 

 considered at length. In fruit culture each of the fruits is discussed 

 in turn, the instruction covering such topics as the original type, methods 

 by which they have been improved, their propagation and care iu the 

 nursery, the soil and location for a permanent plantation, the distance 

 and methods of planting, their cultivation and care, pruning, spraying, 

 gathering, packing, and marketing. In vegetable gardening a similar 

 outline is followed. JMore or less attention is also given to floriculture, 

 both for the home and for conservatories. The building and care of 

 greenhouses and hotbeds and the growing of the more important crops, 

 including both flowers and vegetables, has attention. The decoration of 

 the grounds about one's home, including grading, laying out walks and 

 drives, locating and arranging groups of trees and shrubs, and the con- 

 sideration of the characteristics of the different species of ijlants used 

 for landscape decoration, also receive some time. 



Aside from the above, which may be considered technical instruction, 

 ever}' agricultural college gives some time to what may be considered 

 general culture studies. In fact, the curriculum is not unlike the scien- 

 tific course in other colleges. Mathematics, including algebra, geometry, 

 trigonometr3% with practice in field work; a thorough training in the 

 English language, with some acquaintance with its best literature; while 

 physics, anatomy, and physiology, meteorology, veterinary science, his- 

 tory, psychology, political economy, drawing, and other studies all have 

 a place. 



It will thus be seen that a graduate from an agricultural college will, 

 in addition to a good general education, possess a technical training that 

 will fit him for anj^ calling along agricultural lines. In many of the 

 colleges considerable attention is paid to practical work in both agri- 

 culture and horticulture, that the students may be familiar with the 

 use of the various implements and understand the methods of caring 

 for the different crops. 



Many young men do not possess the time and money required for the 

 four-years course, and the colleges in a dozen or more states have 

 arranged to give six-weeks courses during the winter in such special 

 lines as fruit culture, floriculture, dairying, and stock husbandry. In 



