362 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



year. The iraportance of the immediate establishment of au agricultu- 

 ral and mechanical college was strongly urged by Governor Warmoatk 

 in his annual message, and a plan was proposed by him for carrying 

 the measure into operation, but, from want of time for a proper con- 

 sideration of the important subject, the legislature could notgive it the 

 attention which it demanded, and it failed to receive the sanction of a 

 legal enactment. 



MAINE. 



Maine State College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, at Or'ono^ 

 Rev. Charles F. Allen, D. D., president. — No changes in the faculty or 

 course of study in this college have been made during the year, nor 

 have any new buildings been erected. The attention of the professors 

 has been given especially to the instruction of the students in the col- 

 lege and on the experimental farm. Seventeen acres are cultivated 

 with plowed crops, eighty are in mowing, and one-half acre in orchard. 

 The prominent objects had in view in the cultivation of the farm have 

 been to bring it from its low condition into a high state of productive- 

 ness, to furnish labor to the students for healthy exercise and practical 

 instruction in farming, and to afford-them an opportunity of defraying 

 a part of their expenses. All the work on the farm has been performed 

 by the students, except what has been done by the farm-superintendent, 

 the foreman, and two teamsters. Plats of land are assigned by the pro- 

 fessors to the students, for experiments in the cultivation of the differ- 

 ent crops, to which they have devoted three hours daily under the di- 

 rection of the officer in charge. The experiments commenced some time 

 ago, with cooked and uncooked food in feeding swine, and with differ- 

 ent fertilizers on potatoes, sugar beets, grain, and grasses, have been 

 continued, and their results will be published in the annual report of 

 the college. 



The system of agriculture pursued in renovating grass-laud is to 

 turn the green-sward under in autumn, and in the following spring to 

 spread and harrow in manure, and sow with grain and grass : for hoed 

 crops, to spread and harrow in manure. The greater the quantity of 

 manure, the greater must be the depth to which it is worked into the 

 soil. The following crops have been raised on the fjirm during the 

 present year: Potatoes,' 275 bushels; Excelsior beets, 83 bushels; Lost 

 Nation variety of wheat, 62 bushels ; barley, three varieties, 164 bushels ; 

 buckwheat, two varieties; ruta-bagas, one-half acre ; mangel-wurzel and 

 sugar-beets, one-half acre; fodder-corn, one and ahalf acres; beans, one- 

 fourth acre. 



There are kept on the farm four horses for labor only, three native 

 cows, four grade Durham heifers, four grade Jersey heifers, one Jersey 

 and three grade Jersey calves. The breeds of cattle preferred by this 

 college for the State of Maine are the Durham, the Jersey, and their 

 grades. 



Number of students for the collegiate year 1872 is 71 ; of graduates, 5. 



MARYLAND. 



Maryland Agriciiltnral College, near HyattsrlUe, Rev. Samuel Regester, 

 D. ])., president. — No essential changes have taken place in this college 

 during the present year. The objects had in view in the cultivation of 

 the college farm are, illustration of subjects taught in the class room, 

 improvement of the land, profit in the sale of products, and to supply 



