PROGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 475 
The number of students in attendance at the Agricultural and Me- 
chanical College last session was 300; whole number enrolled in the 
University, 772. They were from thirty-three States and countries. 
The success of this institution is mainly due to the indefatigable ex- 
ertions ef the regent, J. B. Bowman. In reviewing his annual re- 
ports we notice the steady development of his plans for continued im- 
provement. Devoting his life, fortune, and energies to the cause of 
education, itis not surprising that this young institution has made so 
rapid advancement, and that it now ranks among the very first of its 
classin the country. The corps of professors numbers more than thirty, 
many of them distinguished and experienced educators. 
The agricultural department.—The college farm is located on the beau- 
tifal estate of Ashland, the homestead of Henry Clay, purchased for the 
purposes of education by Mr. Bowman, the founder and regent of the 
University. 
Practical instruction in agriculture is given in two departments, the 
compensated and uncompensated, choice of which is left to the student. 
The labor on the farm, in the garden, and in the mechanical shops is 
almost entirely performed by the students, where they are required to 
work two hours daily without pay, except those wishing to pay a por- 
tion of the expenses of their education by their labor, who are paid five 
to ten cents per hour during the first year, and ten to twenty cents 
during the second and third years, according to the labor performed. 
Many of the students pay a large part of the expense of their education 
in this way. The labor is performed under the direction of superinten- 
dents skilled in their business. By adopting the club system of board- 
ing, students have reduced their entire annual expenses to about $100 
each. 
A series of experiments has been made in the manufacture of sorghum 
sirup from sorghum grown upon the farm, by which a superior article has 
been obtained, worth $1 per gallon. Ten acres of broom-corn have been 
planted, from which three hundred dozen brooms have been made, and 
twenty acres will be planted next season. Additional experiments on 
the farm will soon be instituted, which, it is hoped, will develop prin- 
ciples of importance both to the student and the agricultural interests 
of the country. The gardens, orchards, vineyards, and greenhouse 
plants have been cultivated with much success, and the products sold 
in the city market, where the college has a permanent stall. Forty 
cows have been purchased for carrying on the dairy business, from which 
it is intended to supply the milk for the University boarding-houses and 
the people of Lexington. Although the farm has not been so profitable 
as the horticultural department, both have succeeded to the satisfac- 
tion of the managers, and ultimate success, as experience matures, is 
considered certain. 
Horticultural depariment.—This department embraces the ornamental 
and experimental grounds at Ashland and Woodlands, including gardens, 
orchards, vineyards, nurseries, propagating houses, greenhouses, and 
arboreta. Students laboring in this department are under the supervision 
of a skillful superintendent, who is competent to give them thorough in- 
struction in horticulture and landscape gardening; and they have 
ample facilities for the practical application of the principles of botany 
and vegetable physiology, and for a thorough knowledge of the art of 
grafting, budding, and planting, and the general care and culture of all 
kinds of trees, shrubs, and flowers. 
The mechanical depariment.—The mechanical department has been or- 
ganized under the name of the “ Ashland Mechanical Works,” bythe 
