320 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



suit of agriculture goes without saying, but that its benefits 

 do not stop there is equally evident. Its aim is to turn over 

 to the State good citizens, fully equipped to develop its 

 resources, and not only to conserve but to improve its insti- 

 tutions. In the light of this declaration the utility and value 

 of its plant, its equipment and its curriculum will become 

 manifest. Its spacious and well-chosen site, its fertile and 

 richly teeming acres of orchard and meadow reclaimed from ' 

 waste and abandoned swamp-land, its landscape beauties 

 enhanced by every year's growth and improvement, its 

 avenues bordered by shade trees, its heights and declivities 

 adorned with sightly structures for use and beauty and some 

 of them models of their kind, — all proclaim at once the 

 transforming power of skilled industry and the exalted aims 

 of the institution which here finds its seat. 



Commencement week was full of activity and replete with 

 interest. 



The first duty of the committee was to attend the examin- 

 ation of the members of the graduating class in theoretical 

 and practical agriculture. The written and oral test pre- 

 scribed resulted in the award of the first prize to John Edwin 

 Gi fiord, Brockton ; and the second prize to George Henry 

 Merwin, Westport, Conn. 



The chapel exercises on Sunday, including the Baccalau- 

 reate sermon by Professor Walker and the address before the 

 Young Men's Christian Association by Dr. Moxom, aflbrded 

 a suggestive glimpse of the religious life of the college. 



The prize speaking, evincing a spirit of generous and 

 healthful competition, was highly creditable to the partici- 

 pants, and no less so to those who had presided over their 

 preparation. 



The festivities of Class Day present student life to the 

 view from a new stand-point and under an aspect peculiar 

 but not without instructive features. Beneath the exuber- 

 ance of rollicking hilarity and good-natured raillery there 

 is discernible an undercurrent of serious purpose and stanch 

 loyalty to Alma Matei' which is an earnest of devotion to 

 her interests and a pledge of success. 



In view of the detailed reports in previous years, it is 

 hoped and assumed that the military department has passed 



