DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 43 



DEPARTMENT OF PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 



To the President: 



Sir I have the honor to submit herewith the annual report of the 



Department of Practical Agriculture for the year ending June 30, 1898: 



(LASS INSTRUCTION. 



In order that people who read the published reports of the Board may 

 have a more accurate conception of the instruction given in this depart- 

 ment of the College, I shall include in this report, with a statement of 

 the work done, a partial list of the examination questions given the 

 different classes. These questions will indicate the ground gone over 

 and the character of the instruction, since it may be fairly assumed that 

 the work in the class room, laboratory, stock barns and yards and fields 

 is of such a nature and is so conducted as to fully fit the student to give 

 full and accurate answers to the examination questions. 



The entering class began at the commencement of the fall term of 1897 

 the study of live stock taking up, in connection with the history of the 

 different breeds of horses, cattle, sheep and swine, practical work in 

 stock judging. There was given each day a lecture on the history and 

 characteristics of some breed, which was followed the next hour by work 

 in the yard judging, with or without the score card, as the case might be, 

 specimens of the different breeds as far as they were found in the Col- 

 lege herd. Here follows a list of the questions on the final examination, 

 after ten weeks study daily, two hours per day: 



QUESTIONS FOR (LASS IX STOCK JUDGING. 



1. Name the advantages and disadvantages of the use of the score 

 card in judging stock. 



2. With what should every animal to be judged be compared? 



3. Where it is possible, what is the best test of an animal's worth for 

 a certain purpose? 



4. In your judgment, what variety of stock is hardest to judge? Give 

 your reasons. 



5. What do you understand by quality in an animal, and how judged? 



6. In selecting a dairy cow for breeding or the dairy herd, what 

 four points should be most considered, and describe how they should 

 appear in a perfect animal. 



7. State the characteristic differences between the dairy and beef 

 type. 



8. Write out as much as you can of the score card for swine, giving 

 the different points to be observed, and the estimated numerical value. 



