386 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



C. Armstrong^ irresident. — This institute is located in the county of 

 Elizabeth City. It was first incorporated under the present name Sep- 

 tember 21, 1868, but as a State agricultural and mechanical college, 

 with the national endowment, March 19, 1872. It received from the 

 State one-third (895,000) of the proceeds of the congressional land-scrip, 

 on condition that the trustees should organize and support in the insti- 

 tute, from the annual interest of this fund, one or more departments, in 

 which " the leading objects shall be instruction in such branches of 

 learning as relate especially to agriculture and the mechanic arts and 

 military tactics." The governor is required to appoint, on the first day 

 of January, 1873, and on the same day in every fourth year subsequent 

 to this, five persons, three of whom shall be of African descent, citizens 

 of the commonwealth, to be curators of the fund set apart for the use 

 of the institute ; and without the personal presence of a majority of 

 the curators, after a reasonable notice to all of them to be present, and 

 without the sanction of a majority of such as are present, recorded in 

 the minutes of the board of trustees of the institute, no action of the 

 board taken under and by virtue of the act of March 19,. 1872, is to be 

 considered valid and lawful. The trustees of the institute are author- 

 ized to select not less than one hundred students, with reference to their 

 character and proficiency, from the colored free-schools of the State, 

 who shall have the privilege of attending the institute on the same 

 terms as State students are allowed to attend the Agricultural and 

 Mechanical College for white students. 



The institute was opened for the reception of students under its pres- 

 ent regimen, with the national endowment, June 12, 1872. The faculty 

 consists of S. C. Armstrong, president and instructor in moral science ; 

 I. F. B. Marshall, treasurer and busines instructor j Alfred Howe, farm 

 manager and instructor in scientific agriculture ; Thomas P. Fenner, 

 instructor in music ; John H. Larry, first teacher and head of academic 

 department, and instructor in theoretical agriculture ,• M. F. Armstrong, 

 instructor in English literature ; M. C. Kimber, in elocution and hygiene ; 

 Miss Mary F. Mackie, in mathematics ; Miss Mary S, Hungerford, in 

 physical science ; Miss Amelia Tyler, in English grammar and composi- 

 tion ; Miss Lucj' M. Washburn, in natural science and history ; Miss 

 Mattie M. Waldron, in natural science and history; Miss Mattie M. 

 Waldron, in natural science and-grammar ; Miss Helen Ludlow, in Eng- 

 lish language and history. 



The principal college-building is a fine three-story hall, containing 

 assembly and recitation rooms for three hundred students and dormito- 

 ries for forty. There are also several other smaller buildings, and it is 

 the design of the trustees to erect additional ones during the next year, 

 (1873.) 



The experimental farm contains one hundred and twenty-five acres, 

 and cost $19,000. Twelve acres are devoted to mowing, twelve to 

 orchard, and sixty-six are cultivated with plowed crops. All the male 

 members of the institute receive practical instruction on the farm, and, 

 with very few exceptions, engage in its cultivation. For this purpose a 

 detail of a certain number of students is made daily, and they have 

 performed about three-fourths of the labor done on the farm. There 

 have been raised the present year 16 tons of clover-hay, 1,000 bushels 

 of corn, 1,000 bushels of Irish potatoes, 500 bushels of sweet potatoes, 

 30,000 cabbages, 800 bunches of asparagus, 500 bushels of roots, 25 

 bushels of white beans, 200 bushels of oats, 8 tons of coru-foddev, and, 

 also, peas, tomatoes, strawberries, &c., in moderate quantities. There 

 are kept on the farm for milk, breeding, or labor, 2 bulls and 14 



