REPORT OF AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 449 



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 cul- 

 ture. 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 work. 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 study 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 t)ie college exists. 



2. Botany — structural and systematic — special applica- 

 tion to cultivated plants — Microscopy. 



3. Zoology — systematic, with special studies in Ento- 

 mology. 



4. Agriculture — extending through the entire course of 

 four years — study of soils — methods of working — fertili- 

 zers — draining — farm implements — special crops, etc. 

 Stock and Dairy Farming., with lectures on Veterinary 

 Science. Work on the Farm under direction of the Professor 

 of Agriculture, six hours a week, when such work cau 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 

 Laboratory, Junior and Senior years, under direction of the 

 Professor of Chemistry. 



