352 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



ments and a professor of agrioulrure to superintend it. The annual in- 

 terest der^-ed from the proceeds of the congressional land-grant is $8,130. 

 Professors in the agricultural college, 7; assistant, 1; students, 23; 

 professors in all the departments, :J3 ; assistants, 3 ; students, 108 ; 14 

 of whom were ladies; lady graduates, o. The following statement has 

 been received from the president : 



Au attempt to estaWisli a separate institution ont of the proceeds of tlie congres- 

 Bional land-grant havinj]; failed for want of sufScient additional endowment, the legis- 

 Jature, in 1665, offered tLe fnnd to the State University on the condition that iu should 

 accept a new charter conforming it to tho rcquirments of the act of Congress estab- 

 lishing colleges of agriculture and the mechanic arte. The institution thus chartered 

 is the "University of Vermont and State Agricultural College," having one board of 

 trustees, one treasury, one faculty, but several departments. The State has as yet 

 done nothing to increase tho resources of the institution. On accepting its new trust, 

 the university raised a subscription of $80,000, mainly among its alumni and old friends, 

 to enable it to meet it.s,uew responsibilities. Three new departments were created, 

 that of general and agricultural chemistry, that of civil engineering, and that of mod- 

 ern languages. 



Besides these, the department of natural history was modified and enl.arged so as to 

 give greater scope to the studies bearing directly nn agriculture, su,ch as mineralogy, bot- 

 any, physiology, and zoology. Tho institution does not manage a farm, but it h is land 

 ample for experimental jjurposes if funds should be supplied therefor. About 100 stu- 

 dents are in attendance, the numberB in tho pcientitic departments being from ouc-rjuar- 

 ter to one-third the total number. By tho statistics furnished for tho report of the con- 

 gressional committee in 1&74, it appears that of those who have been members of tho 

 institution for a longer or siiorter time since IdGo, a large number have entered into tho 

 various industrial pursuits by which the resonrccsof tho country are developed, and 

 that thus tho college is fulfilling the designs of its founders by sending well-trained 

 men into tho great industries of the nation. In addition to tho work of tho iustitutiou 

 in its new ground, it has done considerable missionaiy work through tho State by 

 sending its professors to farmers' meetings, teachers' associations, anil other general 

 gatherings. During tho past winter Professor Cressy, late of tho Massachusetts Agri- 

 cultural College, was employed by tho university to lecture in every county in tho 

 State on the diseases of animals, and to give a consecutive course on veterinary medi- 

 cine ajid surgery in Burlington. These lectures were provided in tho hope that in this 

 way tho attention of young larmers might bo drawn to tho college, and that they 

 might bo inducedto pnrsuo other branches of stndj- bearing on a:;riculture. Finding 

 that these lectures through the State awakened a great interest on the subject, the 

 college IkuI tho lectures in Burlington reported, and a large edition of tho reports in 

 pamphlet form distributed gratuitously among the farmers and stock-raisera of tho 

 State. 



From the beginning the institution has had to encounter opposition from those whose 

 ideas of an agriculteiral college is a mere mannal-labor pcltool for apprentices to farm- 

 work. The aim of tl,o institution has been to provide, first, for instruction in those 

 sciences — these "biancbes of learning" which relate to agriculture and the mrchanic 

 arts; to erjuip l.Tboratciies, to furnish nniseums, tosecure appa:atus, to gatl or al! thoap- 

 pliances for imparting scientific and practical instruction, and to add, as fast as funds 

 could be got, tho means of exemplifying such instruction in farm, stock, machinery, &c. 



VIRGINIA. 



Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College, at Blachshurgh ; Charles 

 L. C. Alinor, LL. J)., president. — One of the two college buildings, 

 referred to in our report of last year its being in course of construction, 

 is now comi)lcted and occupied. It is used for lecture and recitation 

 rooms, laboratories, &.c. The other, which is of the same .•size and finish 

 and designed for similar purposes, will be com])leted and ready for occu- 

 l)ancy early in tho spring of 1877. The two dwelling-houses, begun last 

 year and intended for professors' residences, are also comjdeted and 

 occupied. They are neatly finished and of excellent quality. So great 

 lias been the inorease of students since the opening of the college in 

 1872, that the number is now doubled, and no more can bo received ru 



