PROGRESS OP INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 339 



farmers will soon make it a common practice to raise them themselves. 

 In bis experiments with apple-trees he has found that applying manure 

 close al)0ut tho foot of the trees, or reraoviug the grass and cultivating 

 small circles about them, has very little beneficial effect. It is only by 

 cultivating very large circles, equal to the extent of the branches, or the 

 whole ground, that beneficial results can be obtained. 



The college-farm contains 67G acres, and is valued at $47,320. About 

 300 acres are cultivated with crops in a regular system of rotation. Ex- 

 periments have been made with White Schonen and Excelsior oats; 

 Oiawsou, Asiatic, Gold-medal, and Dielil wheat; Yellow-blaze corn; 

 roots, and grasses. The Gold-medal wheat .sieideil best. The students 

 have been paid for their labor on the farm and elsewhere during the 

 year $4,404, the price paid them being about 10 cents per hour. The 

 farm-crops were valued at $3,154, and the labor required for their pro- 

 duction $2,819. The farm live stock is worth $10,888, and the imple- 

 ments $1,G85. The annual interest derived from the proceeds of the 

 congressional land-grant, is now $10,880. Of this grant there have been 

 sold during the fiscal year 2,474 acres, at an average price of $8.38 per 

 acre, and 104,799 remain unsold. Three hundred and twenty-eight vol- 

 umes have been added to the library, and twenty-seven agricultural, 

 scientific, and literary periodicals are received regularly by the college. 



Professors, ; assistants, 7; students, 1G6, 4 of whom were ladies. 



MINNESOTA. 



Univefsity of Minnesota — Colleges of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts., 

 at Minneapolis ; William W. FoliceU, M. A., president. — The plant-house 

 has been completed, and the collection and proi)agatiou of plants com- 

 menced. A belt of trees, designed as a wind-break, has been planted 

 around the barn and another around a portion of the furm. 



The anuua,l interest derived from the proceeds of the congressional 

 land-grant is now $13,901. The number of albres of the grant sold 

 during the fiscal year is 3,700, at an average price of $5.44 per acre; 

 the number remaining unsold is 52,187. The college-farm contains 

 120 acres, and is valued at $12,000. Experiments have been mad^ 

 with 12 varieties of wheat, 20 kinds of fertilizers being used; with 

 8 varieties of oats, thick and thin seeded ; with 5 varieties of corn and 

 19 varieties of potatoes, both on sandy soil and vegetable loam, 18 kinds 

 of fertilizers being used ; and with 225 varieties of garden-vegetables. 

 It has been found by experiment on the farm that corn immersed in tar- 

 water and rolled in gypsum is twenty-four hours longer in germinating, 

 but that there is no diliereuce in yield, and that -birds, squirrels, and 

 insects, except the wire-worm, do not touch it; that banking up the 

 earth around the trunks of trees, about the 1st of September, to a height 

 of 15 to 30 incheis, according to their size, will cause an early ripening 

 of the wood, and enable the trees to withstand better the sudden changes 

 of temperature to which they are subject; that stripping oft' the leaves 

 and catting back the branches api>ear to produce in a measure the same 

 result ; and that want of cultivation is the greatest retiirdiug influeuee 

 to successful tree-culture. 



The i)rofessor of agriculture, in giving his views of what an agricult- 

 ural college should be, says that intelligent agriculture is b;ised ui)on 

 a knov.iedge of the natural and physical sciences; therefore the stu- 

 dent should be acquainted with*these sciences before receiving system- 

 atic and connected instructions in the art and ])ractic(! of agricuUnre. 

 All practical instruction is not, however, to be deferred until the last 



