ADDRESS OF WELCOME. 15 



intellectual training with those who choose what have heretofore 

 been called the " learned professions." It is plain that farming 

 will never take its true place, nor farmers have that influence 

 in the government of our land which they ought to have, until 

 they take their place with those in other professions, not only 

 as men of power and practical ability, but as men of learning 

 and culture. Those who claim that the farmer's life forbids this 

 result have never yet fully appreciated the farm as a place for 

 study and thought, as well as a place for labor. 



The course of study in the Massachusetts Agricultural College 

 at the present time embraces the following topics : 



1. Lectures on Health and Habits of /Study and general plan 

 of the college Avork. These lectures are now given by the 

 president. The student, as he begins his college work, is 

 instructed as to the best means of preserving health, the best 

 methods of stud}' and of recitation to secure knowledge and the 

 best mental training at the same time. He has laid before him 

 the studies of the whole course, so far as he then is able to 

 understand them, that he may in the beginning have some just 

 idea of the value of the different studies, may understand why 

 they come in the order they do, and how they make a complete 

 educational whole to secure the purpose for which the college 

 exists. 



2. J5oto/iy — structural and systematic— special application 

 to cultivated plants — Microscopy . 



3. Zoology — systematic, with special studies in Entomology. 



4. Agriculture extending through the entire course of four 

 years — study of soils — methods of working — Fertilizers — Drain- 

 ing — Farm Implements — Special Crops, etc., etc. Stock and 

 Dairy Farming, with lectures on Veterinary Science. 



Work on Farm under direction of Professor of Agriculture, 

 six hours a week, when such work can be supplied. 



5. Horticulture. Market Gardening — Arboriculture. Care 

 of Nurseries — Landscape Gardening. Work in nurseries, 

 propagating houses and vineyard done under direction of 

 Professor of Horticulture. 



6. Chemistry . Theoretical and practical. Work in Lal)o- 

 ratory junior and senior years, under direction of the Professor 

 of Chemistry. 



