No. 4.] AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 241 



culture he may desire to follow after graduating. Yet the 

 number of graduates from this department who have taken 

 up lines of horticultural work with remarkable success is 

 large, and they have come almost entirely from those who 

 have been obliged to work to earn funds to pay their college 

 expenses. 



Class-room Work. 



The Massachusetts Agricultural College aims to teach 

 scientific and experimental knowledge in its relation to 

 agriculture and also to other industries and professions. 

 Instruction is given largely by lectures and practical demon- 

 strations in the laboratory, supplemented by text-books and 

 library references, for which purpose a library, now contain- 

 ing 18,497 volumes, has been provided for use of students. 

 Technical training is given in those operations in agriculture 

 and horticulture that require skilled labor, and are best 

 taught by experiment work; i. e., care and feeding of 

 stock, dairying in all its departments, budding, grafting and 

 pruning of trees and vines, spraying, transplanting, etc. 



Students in the senior year are allowed to select those 

 studies (three each term) that are calculated to fit them for 

 the line of work they intend to pursue. This plan has not 

 been in operation long enough to determine its results to the 

 college or to the students. 



Course of Study. 

 Agriculture. 

 The lecture room is well equipped with numerous charts 

 and lantern slides to illustrate the subjects taught. There is 

 also a large collection of different soils, fertilizing materials, 

 concentrated foods, grasses, grains and forage plants. There 

 is a series of Landberg's models of the leading breeds of 

 farm animals. Students are required to take notes, and are 

 later examined on the various subjects, — soils, their forma- 

 tion and origin ; methods of testing soils to determine their 

 fertility ; manures and fertilizers ; animal husbandry ; breed- 

 ing, management and feeding of stock ; conditions for suc- 

 cessful culture of all farm crops, — are some of the subjects 

 treated. 



