NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



PENNSYLVANIA AGRICULTURAL 

 COLLEGE. 



We have just received from President Pugh a 

 copy of the catalogue of this institution for the 

 past year. All the public lands to which Penn- 

 sylvania is entitled for educational purposes have 

 been bestowed upon this College, and its pros- 

 pects for usefulness appear to be very encourag- 

 ing. One hundred and forty-two students have 

 attended the session just closed. That for 1864 

 will open upon the 24th of February, and close on 

 the 14th of ^he following December. The ad- 

 dress of President Pugh is "Agricultural College 

 P. O., Centre county, Pa." 



Not having leisure at this moment, for a more 

 careful examination of this Fifth Annual Cata- 

 logue of the institution, we think our readers will 

 be interested in the following brief synopsis of its 

 facts and contents, by the editor of the German- 

 toivn Telegraph : 



At present the college is managed by five pro- 

 fessors, two assistants, one teacher and five super- 

 intendents. It is under the care of thirteen trus- 

 tees : nine elected tri-yearly by delegates from the 

 county agricultural societies of the State, and four 

 ex-officio members. The course of instruction 

 extends through four years. A primary depart- 

 ment has been established for such as are not suf- 

 ficiently advanced to enter the regular college 

 course, and a fifth year for graduated students is 

 added to the course. During this year, the stu- 

 dent pursues some special scientific study, having 

 direct reference to his immediate plans of activi- 

 ty in life. The object of the college course is to 

 give the student a thorough scientific knowledge, 

 at the same time that he acquires a good English 

 education, and becomes familiar with the practical 

 operations of the farm, garden and nursery of the 

 college. 



Each student is required to perform three hours' 

 manual labor daily upon the college farm ; and, 

 by having the students divided into four working 

 details, the labor on the farm is kept up during 

 twelve hours daily. 



All the work of a farm of four hundred acres is 

 thus performed by the students. The college 

 building is now completed, and all its museums 

 and recitation rooms are ready for use. Its chem- 

 ical laboratories are as completely filled with all 

 the aids and appliances for analytical chemistry 

 as those of any other institution in the world, and 

 the course of instruction pursued is similar to that 

 of the best German laboratories. The geological 

 collection of '.he State Geologist, obtained during 

 bis survey of the State, is in the college museum ; 

 (TojaAap pun puaixa o% opera Suiaq o.tc s^iojja pin? 

 all the departments of instruction, so as to em- 

 brace all the means and instrumentalities for ed- 

 u??.*ion in all the natural sciences, and most espe- 

 cially those bearing upon the practical operatious 

 of life. 



Frauds of Sheep Exhibitors. — In a report 

 of a committee of the New York State Agricul- 

 tural Society, consisting of Hon. A. B. Conger, 

 J. McGraw and D. B. Hight, we find the follow- 



ing expose and rebuke of the means resorted to 

 by some exhibitors to give their sheep the ap- 

 pearance of a model form which they do not pos- 

 sess: 



It is well understood that, for the purpose of 

 carrying out this system, animals designated for 

 exhibition are shorn in mid-winter, not closely nor 

 evenly, but so as to hide their natural defects, or 

 to give undue prominence to certain parts of the 

 carcass. That they are then blanketed so as to 

 prevent their taking cold, and afterwards, and for 

 some little time before exhibition for sale, they 

 are again trimmed, the wool being left, as in the 

 case of most of the animals exhibited at the fair, 

 in some places twice as long as in others. 



Your committee consider this a gross deception 

 upon judges who examine only by their eyes, and 

 also upon farmers who are not cognizant of these 

 practices, who become purchasers and undertake 

 the business of breeding, and also a great source 

 of injustice to such as exhibit their sheep after 

 the ordinary system of shearing, as late as the 

 first of June, on an average, and closely and even- 

 ly shorn at that. 



Fur the New England Farmer. 

 USE OP BONES— CROPS AND WOOL IN 

 VERMONT. 



Messrs. Editors:— As time has come for me 

 to calcine, or make fine, what bones I may have 

 got together during the year past, I will tell you 

 how I have done it for many years, and if you 

 think best, you may give it to your readers. 



When I have got through with killing meat for 

 the year, I have a 90-gallon kettle set in an arch, 

 in which I cook food for my hogs, and in which I 

 try out the beeves' heads and feet. After the oil 

 is taken off, I add what other bones I have to those 

 in the kettle, and fill up with good strong wood 

 ashes, and make the ashes barely wet, not sloppy, 

 but "thick as pudding." I then heat the mass to 

 a scalding point, and keep it so, or as near as I 

 can, for two or three days, stirring it frequently, 

 when the bones will be fine ; and if the ashes are 

 really strong, and managed rightly, even the 

 hoofs will all be so nearly dissolved that you can- 

 not find them. 



It makes a most powerful manure. It may be 

 applied in various ways ; I generally mix it with 

 dry leached ashes, or soil, and sow it broadcast 

 on dry ground, and harrow in with grain. It 

 might perhaps be so reduced as to be put in the 

 hill with corn, but great care should be taken, as 

 it is so strong. 



As to the crops here in Lamoille Co., the hay 

 crop was full an average one in quantity ; and 

 though later than usual when it was secured, the 

 quality was not so bad as the time of securing 

 would indicate. The wet weather, which made us 

 late in getting in our hay, kept the grass growing 

 at the bottom, so that, on the whole, our hay crop 

 was bountiful, and of good quaiitiy. 



Corn was a good crop, and sound ; oats, mid- 

 dling ; wheat, a very small crop ; buckwheat and 

 India wheat, middling ; potatoes, very uncertain 

 — some pieces very good, and some very light, — 

 though I think, from what I have learned, there is 

 a better crop in this county than in this State 

 generally. Other roots, beans, &c., were about 

 as usual. On account of the scarcity of help, there 



