468 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
the use of English, with practice in writing and elocution. Botany: Ex- 
cursions and lectures, Drawing: Lessons in geometrical, perspective, 
and free-hand drawing. ‘ 
At the close of the freshman year the students are assigned to the 
various sections which embrace the studies they respectively desire to 
pursue during the remaining years of their course. In each section they 
also attend to some studies appropriate to other sections. These sec- 
tions constitute eight special courses, as follows: 
1. Chemistry and metallurgy.—Analytical chemistry, theoretical organic chemistry, 
acricultural chemistry, metallurgy, and mineralogy, with weekly exercises in the ident- 
ification of minerals. 
2, Civil engineering.—Spherical trigonometry, higher analytical geometry, differential 
and integral calculus, descriptive geometry and codrdinate branches of study; practi- 
cal surveying with field operations and plotting connected with it; drawing of planes 
and elevations, shading and tinting, linear perspective, free-hand drawing; construc- 
ticn and operation of machines, utilization of water-power; employment of prime 
movers, including hydraulic motors and steam-engines ; the laying out of curves, and 
field operations necessary in locating a line of road, establishing the grade, and deter- 
mining the amount of excavation and of embankment, strength of materials, the estab- 
lishment of foundations, construction of walls and arches, bridges, roof-trusses, &ec., in 
wood and iron, and the graphics in stone-cutting. 
3. Mechanical or dynamical engineering—Mechanical drawing; theoretical or pure 
mechanics; theory and construction of machines, machinery, and theory of mechanism; 
the application of the principles of dynamics to the designing and construction of 
prime movers and other machinery for special purposes; the fabrication of materials 
used in the construction of machinery ; the practical construction of the parts, the fit- 
ting up of machinery generally, and the management and control of the same. 
4. Agriculture.—Agricultural and analytic chemistry, vegetable physiology and botany, 
zoology, entomology, geology, culture of staple crops, principles of stock-breeding and 
rearing, and rural economy. 
5. Natural history.—Physiological and structural botany; geology, with excursions 
to interesting localities, and the study of fossils in the zoological laboratory ; zodlogy, 
including comparative anatomy, embryology, &c.; and mineralogy, showing the phys- 
iological properties of minerals, crystallization, classification, &c. 
6. Preparation for medical studics.—Chemical testing of drugs and poisons; compara- 
tive anatomy, reproduction, embryology, the laws of hereditary descent, and human 
parasites; and a general knowledge of structural and physiological botany, and medi- 
cinal, foed-producing, and poisonous plants. 
7. Studies preparatory to mining.—The regular course in eivil or mechanical engineer- 
ing, and the fourth year metallurgy, mineralogy, and lectures on mining. 
8. Select studies preparatory to other higher pursuits, to business, fc.—Iin addition to 
instruction in German, French, and English, common to all the departments, the gen- 
eral principles of language, the critical study of the English language in its structure, 
history, and literature; constant practice in composing; systematic instruction in the 
physical geography of the globe; in the special, physical, and historical geography of 
Europe and the United States; in the outlines of modern history and in political econ- 
omy; in agricultural chemistry, botany, zodlogy, geology, mineralogy, and mathemat- 
ical astronomy ; lectures on agriculture, rural economy, stock-breeding, and on gen- 
eral and theoretical chemistry. 
Building and apparatus.—Shefiield Hall is a large and commodious 
building, containing recitation and lecture rooms for ail the classes, a 
hall for public assemblies and lectures, laboratories for chemical and 
metallurgical investigations, a photographic room, an astronomical 
observatory, museums, a library and reading-room, besides studies for 
some of the professors. The collections belonging to the school are: 
1. Apparatus in chemistry, metallurgy, mechanics, photography, and 
zodlogy. 2. Metallurgic museum of ores, rocks, furnace-products, and 
an extensive private cabinet of minerals. 3. Agricultural museum of 
soils, fertilizers, and useful and injurious insects. 4. Astronomical 
apparatus, consisting of an equatorial telescope by Clark & Son, of 
Cambridge, and a meridian circle. 5. Cabinet of physiological and 
mechanical apparatus, constituting the “Collier cabinet.” 6. Models in 
architecture, civil engineering, and descriptive geometry. 7. Mechani- 
