49 



is ci^'votecl to experimental work which includes capillarity of soil; 

 ditfusionand osmosis of gases and licpiids; heating, lighting, and ven- 

 tilation; farm machinery, in particular pumps, eveners, pulleys, milk 

 testers, centrifugals, incubators, windmills, steam and gasoline engines; 

 friction and lubricants; tensile strength of wire and l)inding twine of 

 different grades; lightning and lightning protection. 



The work designated "agriculture" in the school of agriculture 

 includes (1) ''introductory agriculture — soils; selecting and planting 

 farms; subduing the lields; drainage; irrigation; fences; roads; build- 

 ino's; water supply; groves and introductory lessons concerning farm 

 business, farm life, and the relations ot general science to agriculture;" 

 and (2) field crops and farm management, comprising instruction in 

 remodeling farm plans, production and management of farm manures, 

 rotation and handling of field crops, care and use of pastures and 

 meadows, weeds and their destruction, and the laws of heredit}^ and 

 variation in plant breeding, together with instruction in methods of 

 breeding the leading field crops. 



The college course inagrononw includes soil physics, field crops and 

 seed, and plant breeding. Instruction in soil physics is given in the 

 divisions of agricultural physics and agricultural chemistry, while 

 that in field crops and seed and in plant breeding is given mainly by 

 the professor of agriculture. 



Under the head of field crops and seed are considered the botany, 

 cultivation, use and place in the rotation of the various cereal, forage, 

 root, fiber, sugar, and miscellaneous crops. Special attention is given 

 to the subjects of permanent, rotation, annual, and shift pastures and 

 to soiling crops; to permanent and rotation meadows, and to the pro- 

 duction and preservation of all kinds of dry-cured and ensiled fodders. 

 A thesis on one or more field crops is required of each student. 



The work in plant l)reeding includes instruction on such subjects as 

 heredity, variation, science of breeding, breeding as an art, improve- 

 ment by nature and under scientific experimentation, securing founda- 

 tion stocks, value of very large numbers, immense value of the occa- 

 sional individual which can transmit ([ualities of peculiar value, use 

 of an ideal, use and nususe of the score card, intrinsic qualities, fancy 

 points and distinguishing marks, pedigree records of prepotency, 

 fundamental principles underlying the arrangement of the record 

 books, bibliography and terminology, study of the literature of breed- 

 ing. Attention is also given to the botany of the reproductive organs 

 of field crops, field-crop nursery management, producing new qualities 

 by hybridizing and by change of environment, hybridizing versus cross- 

 breeding, in-breeding and self-fertilization, originating varieties and 

 improving standard varieties, methods of disseminating new varieties, 

 seed and plant introduction, experimentation in the theories relating 



26777— No. 127—03 4 



