COLLEGE BUILDINGS. 227 



Interspersed through the foremeiitioned recitations, were 

 exercises in composition and declamation. This department is 

 also under the care of Prof. Goodell, and the pupils showed 

 good training in the forum as well as in the gymnasium. The 

 ability to communicate thought by written and vocal language, 

 is one of the highest God has given us. The power which the 

 orator has over his fellow-men, convincing their understandings, 

 and swaying their feelings, is the highest which man possesses. 

 We were glad to notice that this power is cultivated in our 

 Agricultural College. Farmers as a class have not given that 

 attention to rhetoric which its importance demands, and conse- 

 quently have not exerted that influence to which they were 

 otherwise entitled by their numbers, wealth and sound 

 judgment. 



The little leisure that was given us after the close of the 

 examination, was spent in looking over the college buildings 

 and grounds. We will not detain the Board with repetition of 

 information on these points which can be better obtained from 

 the report of the Board of Trustees, The farm is large and 

 will require all the knowledge, ability and energy of Superin- 

 tendent Stockbridge to bring it into a model condition. The 

 buildings are good, so far as they go, but their capacity is 

 exhausted by the present class, and a new dormitory and a 

 larger boaj-ding-house will be needed for the accommodation of 

 the freshmen of next year. An appeal will probably be made 

 by the Trustees to the legislature for aid in the erection of these 

 buildings, and we trust will not be made in vain. The present 

 dormitory only furnishes accommodation for forty -eight students, 

 giving a sitting-room and two small bedrooms for each couple. 

 We looked into some of these rooms, and found them 

 comfortable and orderly. 



Our attention was particularly called to a conservatory, built 

 by the liberality of one of the members of our Board, and 

 mostly filled by the liberality of two others. This conservatory 

 is adapted both for the rearing and propagation of plants, and is 

 built on the plan of two octagons, forty and sixty feet respec- 

 tively in diameter, and connected by a glass house twenty-five 

 feet in width. Grouped around these octagons are compart- 

 ments for different kinds of plants requiring different amounts 

 of light and heat. In the centre of one was being built a tank 



