224 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



2d. Reports of Delegates. 



3d. Reports of Committees. 



4th. Essays on Special Subjects. 



This report was accepted, and Mr. Hyde, chairman of the 

 examining committee of the Agricultural College, presented the 

 following Report of the committee appointed to attend the 

 examination of the 



MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 



The Committee appointed by the Massachusetts Board of Agri- 

 culture to attend the examination of the Agricultural College 

 at Amherst, having attended to that duty, respectfully submit 

 the following Report : — 



The first session of the college commenced October 2, 'with a 

 class of thirty students, and closed December 17, at which time 

 the class had increased to forty-six. It was our pleasure to be 

 present on the last day of the session and to hear the class 

 review the studies to which they had given their attention during 

 the term. The examination was conducted by Prof. Snell in 

 geometry, by Prof. Goodell in physiology and gymnastics, by 

 President Clark in chemical physics, and Prof. Stockbridge in 

 practical agriculture ; and in all these branches the students 

 showed proficiency, especially considering that only one short 

 session of eleven weeks had been devoted to study, and that 

 many of the students labored under the disadvantage of com- 

 mencing late in the term, and both professors and students had 

 entered upon a new enterprise, in which were few precedents to 

 furnish light for their guidance. The first glance at the class 

 showed a company of bright, intelligent faces, such as would do 

 honor to any literary institution in the land, and such as we 

 might expect among the sons of the most enterprising yeomen 

 of Massachusetts. Their age varied, we judged, from sixteen to 

 twenty-five, and though this disparity might seem to be a hin- 

 drance to their pulling evenly together, still, during the exer- 

 cises of the day, both physical and mental, we did not notice 

 but that the younger kept up well with the older. A glance at 

 the class also convinced us that order, the first law of schools, 

 as well as of heaven, had been enforced upon the students, not 

 by despotic power, but by the magic which a candid, calm, but 

 firm and decided will of the superior always exerts upon the 



