340 REPOKT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGKICULTDRE. 



year. Verbal instructiou and mamial practice should be provided in 

 each operation as it occurs in the natural course of events ; but the 

 main part, the body, of practical instruction can be fu% appreciated 

 only when some knowledge of the "sciences has been acquired ; there- 

 fore let language, mathematics, and natural and physical sciences come 

 in the first years of the course, and practical agriculture later. The 

 library, museum, stock, farm, and gardens are to serve as auxiliaries to 

 this course of instruction. 



Professors in the Colleges of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, G ; 

 assistants, 2 ; students, 6 ; professors in all the departments, 11 ; assist- 

 ants, 8 J students, 2G7, 190 of whom were gentlemen and 71 ladies, 



MISSISSIPPI. 



Univcrftity of Mississippi — College of Agriculture and the Mechanic 

 Arts, at Oxford; General Alexander F. Stewart, chancellor. — Few changes 

 have been made in this college since our last report. The annual inter- 

 est derived from one-half of the proceeds of the congressional land- 

 grant is now received by this college, according to the law of 1875, which 

 amounts to $5,078.75. The college-farm contains 100 acres and is valued 

 at $2,000. The trustees have suspended operations on it for tihe present, 

 but they will probably be resumed when there are students in the college 

 who need instruction in practical agriculture. 



The laboratory for practical work in chemistry is large and well fur- 

 nished with apparatus. Special attention is given to the chemistry of 

 geology and its economical products bearing on agriculture. A collec- 

 tion of several thousand geological specimens from all the formations 

 of the State has been made, consisting of various kinds of economic 

 rocks, fossils, soils, marls, &c. The collection of soils is of great inter- 

 est, having been obtained from every county of the State. The analyses 

 ■which have been made of most of them show all their characteristics, 

 and enable the student to comprehend at once the agricultural resources 

 of every part of the State. The Markoc collection of minerals is claimed 

 to be inferior to none in the world. It includes a large number of rocks, 

 simple minerals, and fossils, sufficient for the fullest itlustratiou of min- 

 eralogy and its related subjects. The herbarium contains specimens of 

 all the plants indigenous to Mississippi, and some fi^om the adjoining 

 States. 



Professors in the college, 5 ; assistants, 1; professors in all the depart- 

 ments, 8; assistants, 4; students, 131. There are no students in the 

 college pursuing a regular course in agriculture, but there are 15 in the 

 course of science, which embraces some studies relating to agriculture 

 and the mechanic arts. 



Alcorn University — Agricultural and Mechanical College, at Rodney ; 

 Bev. Hyram R. Revels, t>. D., president. — The university is slowly recov- 

 ering from the embarrassment occasioned by the abolition of free sckol- 

 arships by the State legislature and the removal ef the board of trustees 

 and the faculty last year. On the 20th »f July, 1870, Dr. llevels was 

 reappointed president and a professor was added to the faculty. The 

 prospects of the university are more encouraging than in 1875; but it 

 is believed that at least two years will be required before it can regain 

 its former standing. 



The annual interest derived from one-half of the proceeds of the con- 

 gressional land-grant, the part now received by this university, amounts 

 to $5,078.75. The experimental farm contains 25© acres, and is valued 



