AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 11 



separate from other schools where labor is not required. Labor should be demanded of all 

 that its good influences in maintaining habits of daily labor, taste for rural pursuits, and im- 

 parting skill, should be general, and create the proper feeling towards it, in all who are con- 

 nected with it. 



I believe this object has been accomplished at the college. I listen to the orations of seniors 

 and juniors who are permitted a large freedom in what they advocate. I minele with them 

 at their work, and I have never known students study books in tiny institution with greater 

 general faithfulness than they labor here, and the way of speaking ol labor is appreciative, and 

 honorable alike to students and the institution. 



2. The regular hours of labor are from one to four o'clock each afternoon, except on Sat- 

 urdays when it is furnished only on request. As a matter of fact, five-sixths of the students 

 do request it. This arrangement leaves the entire forenoon for study and classes, and gives 

 time for complete rest after labor before the study of the evening. 



Some years ago the students were divided into three divisions, the first division going to 

 their work immediately after breakfast, a second division at the end of three hours, and a 

 third in the afternoon. 



The present plan gives a better part of the day to study, when the mind is fresh. Three 

 hours' work, which a mature man would not mind, is a tax on the vital energies of an im- 

 mature, growing boy, that is apt to render him sleepy or inert afterwards. The plan enables 

 us to work the boys more in groups under proper leaders and officers. Some of the students 

 are unaccustomed to work, many are young, and it is essential to their good habits, as a 

 general rule, here as in everything else, that they do their work under the lead of some one 

 who knows how to do it. The arrangement of lectures and work under this system is more 

 readily made. 



The change was made years ago. It was explained to a committee of the House of Rep- 

 resentatives, and the additional cost of the plan was shown. It was approved by them, and 

 by many succeeding committees, and has worked with us much better than the other plan. 



3. The officers of the college work with the students, and personally superintend the work. 

 It is a matter of my personal knowledge that the professor of agriculture, and the professor 

 of horticulture go out to the three hours daily work with quite the same regularity as the 

 students, and stay through the three hours. There are besides, two foremen on the farm, 

 both excellent practical farmers, and a foreman on the gardens ; and the foreman of the 

 greenhouse, when not needed within the bouse, always works with the students 

 outside. All these are part of the educational force of the institution. It is in this 

 oversight and leadership that the pupil finds it to bis educational advantage to work. 

 To one who looks upon the college chiefly as a farm, and the students as so many 

 hired men, this may seem a waste of force, but to any one acquainted with the de- 

 mands of education it will not appear so. Efficient schools are those that are well 

 supplied with competent instructors. The University has four professors and instructors 

 in chemistry, and has I am certain none too many. Our farm is a large laboratory, 

 where the students are scattered out of sight of each other, and busied with more various 

 processes than go on within the walls of a chemical laboratory, and we too have none too 

 many to look after the working habits and instruction of our pupils. 



4. The labor of students is intimately connected with the subjects of their lessons. Lec- 

 tures are not infrequently given in the fields, or yards where the stock is kept. The princi- 

 ples learned from books find their illustrations in the field or workshop; and on the other 

 hand, what students observe while at labor stimulates them to the study of principles. 



While the freshmen and seniors alternate between the farm and horticultural departments, 

 the sophomores work the entire year on the farm, and the juniors on the garden. This 

 gives the superintendents opportunity for somewhat of a more systematic instruction in the 

 two departments, and enables the students to keep informed of a whole years' continuous 

 plan in the two departments. 



The teamsters employed by the month do not labor where their work will forward farm- 

 ing operations most, but where they will make best preparation for the students' labor, and 

 the labor of students is very varied. They help tnk" care of the stock, they milk and feed 

 the cattle, drive the teams, run the machinery of different sorts, plant, tend and harvest 

 crops. Scarcely anything Is regularly done by the hired help, except the main charge of 

 cattle is with the herdsman, whom the students assist, and the care of horses is with 

 hired men chiefly. The improving work is done in good quantity by the students them- 

 selves, and especial care is taken to make the labor various. Students are not kept at the 

 labor they can do best, but are changed from one kind of work to another. Besides these farm- 

 ing operations they do surveying, and platting, they graft and bud, they often have special 

 plats of some vegetables under individual charge, they repair tools, and make fences and 

 gates. They lay out and construct drains and repair buildings. The piggery is almost en- 

 tirely their work, so is the inside work of the horse barn, and the fitting up of the windmill. : 



