41 



chavacteristics of soils, such as detennining the specitic gravity, apparent 

 specitic gravity, water movements, capillarity, etc. During the winter 

 term ten hours per week are devoted by the student to original inves- 

 tigation work along sonu^ line agreed upon between the student and pro- 

 fessor in charge. During the spring 

 term ten hours per week, seven 

 weeks, are devoted to advanced work 

 in soils, including lectures, lal)ora- 

 tory work, studj'ing soluble salts in 

 soils by the electrical method, the 

 pore space in natural soils, etc. 



The building in which the instruc- 

 tional and la))oratory work in agron- 

 om}" is chiefly conducted is built of 

 brick, is 53 feet long, 54 feet wide, 

 and two stories high, with attic and 

 basement, and is known as Agricul- 

 tural Hall {Pi V). The basement 

 of this building contains a large la))- 

 oratory for agricultural physics, a 

 small laborator}^ for mechanical 

 analysis of soils (PI. VI, lig, 1), store- 

 rooms, etc. , and connects with a small 

 plant house. The first floor contains 

 ofiices, a dark room, and a large gen- 

 eral lecture room provided with IMI 

 square feet of blackboard, two cases 

 of wall maps, a stereopticon. and a 

 12 b}' 12 foot lantern screen. The 

 windows of this and otlier rooms in 

 the building are provided with cloth 

 curtains and wood blinds. The lan- 

 tern slides at present include illus- 

 trations of different phases of soil 

 formation and soil destruction and of 

 different kinds of farm machinery. 

 New slides are being added. The 

 soils lal)orator3^, which also serves 

 as a lecture room, is on the second 

 floor of Agricultural Hall (PI. VI, 

 fig. 2) and is supplied with apparatus as follows: Four sets of galvan- 

 ized iron tul)es (fig. 2) for the stud}' of moisture movements in soils 

 and three sets of brass tubes for the study of water and air movements 

 (figs. 3 and 4) in soils; a "King's aspirator" (fig. 3) for determining the 

 effective size of soil grain>^: a "Whitney's bridge" for determining 



Fig. S.- 



King's aspirator to determine the ef- 

 l"o('ti\'e size of soil grains. 



