328 EEPORT OF THE COMMISSIONEK OF AGRICULTURE. 



three instead of two years in the undergraduate course, general and 

 economic botany being taught in the sophomore instead of the junior 

 year. Students are not only enrolled in separate colleges, but in each 

 college they may enter on regular or special courses. The special courses 

 are adapted to those who desire to acquire proficiency in a single branch, 

 or who are unable to remain long enough to pursue a full course. Spe- 

 cialists are also received into post-graduate courses in chemistry and engi- 

 neering, and such other specialties as may be provided by the heads of 

 the different departments. An opportunity is thus offered to any student 

 ■who may feel himself deficient in a branch of study which he has i)ur- 

 sued in the regular course to acquire such additional information as he 

 may desire. 



The annual interest derived from the proceeds of the congressional 

 land-grant, is now 845,000. The college-farm contains 200 acres, and 

 valued at 8200,000. This includes the whole domain at Berkeley, 

 40 acres of which have been under cultivation with experimental 

 crops. It is the design of the university to develop this domain 

 for the purpose of illustrating the capabilities of the State for special 

 cultures, as forests, fruits, field-crops, &c. It will, therefore, be the 

 station where new plants and processes will be tested and the results 

 made known to the public. Experiments have been made on the effects 

 of different depths of plowing and on five kinds of fertilizers in the pro- 

 duction of wheat and oats. In the laboratory, investigations have been 

 conducted in the analyses of soils, subsoils, fertilizers, waters and their 

 purification, grape sirups, seeds of the Bliamnus Californictis, proposed 

 as a substitute for coffee, and of commercial products for economic use. 

 The garden of economic botany has also been improved by grading and 

 underdraining. 



Professors in the colleges, 10; assistants, 0; students, 50 ; professors 

 in all the departments, 12 ; assistants, 23 ; students, 307. 



CONNECTICUT. 



Yale College — Sheffield Scientific School at New Haven ; Eev. Noah Por- 

 ter^ D. !>., LL. !>., i)rcsident. — The Peabody Museum of Natural History, 

 referred to in our last report is now completed, at a cost of $140,000 ; 

 including cases, $175,000. The money was given for this purpose by 

 George Peabody, of London. The plan of the building is so arranged 

 that it can be enlarged at any time when more room is needed with- 

 out injuring its symmetry or beauty. The basement is devoted to the 

 sandstone collections of fossil foot-prints from the Connecticut Valley 

 and to work and store rooms; the first story, to the mineral-cabinet 

 and recitation and lecture rooms ; the second, to geology ; the third, 

 to zoology; the fourth, to archaeology and ethnology. A part of the 

 collections have already been deposited in their appropriate rooms and 

 systematically arranged. The museum is now open to students daily. 

 Instruction in mineralogy, zoology, and comparative anatomy will bo 

 given in this building, and the laboratory of determinative mineralogy 

 has already been moved into it. During the past two years two pro- 

 fessors have been added to the faculty of the school, William G. Mix- 

 ter, Ph. B., professor of chemistry, and Sidney I. Smith, Ph. B., profes- 

 sor of comparative anatomy. These professorships are both new, and 

 the gentlemen selected to fill them have prepared themselves by study 

 in this country and in Germany with special reference to the particular 

 branches they are required to teach. 



Large additions have been made to the zoological collections, consist- 



