164 



THE ILLINOIS FAHMER. 



June 



cannot do tlie subject justice in this 

 short review. 



BLA0KBEBKIE8. 



So far as we can learn this crop is a 

 failure, or nearly so, our new Improved 

 Egyptian among the rest. Canes slightly 

 sheltered promise a crop, but it is yet 

 too soon to determine the full extent of 

 the damage. 



EA8PBERKIE8. 



The Purple Cane and the Black Cap 

 are in the most promising condition, 

 and we are now extending our planta- 

 tion from the young tips. We cannot 

 too strongly urge attention to this fruit. 

 "While the blackberry is uncertain, the 

 raspberry gives us annual crops of the 

 most delicious fruit. We are clearing 

 our grounds of the whole row of suck- 

 ering raspberries, as they are of no 

 value as compared with the two named. 



GOOSEBERRIES A2JD CURRAmrS 



Promise an unusual crop. The Ohio 

 Prolific is quite a favorite with us, 

 from the fact that it is more upright 

 than the Houghton. 



STRAWBBRRY. 



The Early Scarlet commenced bloom- 

 ing the first inst., and to-day the whole 

 family are out in full floral regalia. The 

 plants are strong, and the promise of a 

 full crop was never better. 



On the whole we have little cause to 

 complain, but should be thankful to the 

 all-wise Giver for such a bountiful 

 prospect before us. 



.pimltinri^ 



Hepozt of the Agricultural Collego of 

 Iowa. 



The Secretary, Got. W. D. Wilson has sent his 

 report for 1868, being the fifth of the series. It is 

 a closely printed pamphlet of eighty -eight pages: 



OBJECT or THB INSTITUTION. 



The Iowa State Agricultural College baa for its 



object, to associate a high state of intelligence toith 

 the practice of Agriculture, and the industrial or me- 

 chanic arts, and to seek to make use of this intelli- 

 gence in developing the agricultural and industrial 

 resources of the country, and protecting its inter- 

 ests. It proposes to do this by seyeral means : 



1st. As a purely educational institution, its 

 course of instruction is to include the entire range 

 of the Natural Sciences ; but will embrace more 

 especially those that haye a practical bearing upon 

 the every day duties of life, in order to make the 

 student familiar with the things immediately 

 around him, and with the powers of nature he em- 

 ploys, and with the material through the instru- 

 mentalities of which, under the blessings of Provi- 

 dence, he lives and moves and has his being ; and 

 since Agriculture, more than any other of the in- 

 dustrial arts, is important to man, and since, for 

 the complete education of its principles more sci- 

 entific knowledge is required than for all other in- 

 dustrial arts combined, it follows that this should 

 receive by far the highest degree of attention. — 

 The course of instruction is to be thorough, so that 

 it will not only afibrd the student the facts of sci- 

 ence, but will discipline his mind to habits of 

 thought, and enable him fully to comprehend the 

 abstract principles involved in the practical ope- 

 rations of life. In doing this it is not deemed 

 possible to educate every agriculturist, artisan, 

 mechanic, and business man in the State, but to 

 send out a few students educated in the college 

 course, that they, by the influence of precept and 

 example, may infuse new life and intelligence into 

 the several communities they may enter. A singls 

 individual, who is thoroughly educated in the prin- 

 ciples and practice of an art, followed by a com- 

 munity, will often exert a more salutary influence 

 upon the practice of this art, by the community, 

 than would result from sending the whole commu- 

 nity to a school of lower order than that which he 

 attended. A single practical school of the highest 

 order in Paris, (the Ecole Polytechnique), during 

 the last generation, made France a nation celebra- 

 ted alike for profound philosophers, great states- 

 men, able generals ai;d military men, and civil en- 

 gineers. If one high school of this practical char- 

 acter is established, subordinate schools, affording 

 the elementary education of the latter, will follow 

 in due time. 



2d. As s, practical education the Trustees of the 

 Iowa State Agricultural College have adopted the 

 fundamental principle, that whatever is necessary 

 for man to have done, it is honorable for man to 

 do, and that the grades of honor attached to all la- 

 bor, are dependent upon the talent and fidelity ex- 

 hibited in performing it. It is further considered 

 essential at apart of a studenfs education, that he be 

 taught the practical application, in the field and lab- 

 oratory, of the principles he studies in the data 

 room ; and manual labor is also necessary for the 

 pr«servation of health, and the maintenance of tke 

 habits of industry. An incidental, but not unim- 

 portant result of the operation of these principles 

 is a reduction of the cost of tuition by the value of 

 the labor, so that the college can take students at 

 a very low rate of admission. 



All students, without regard to pecuniary cir- 

 cumstances, are therefore obliged to perform man- 

 ual labor as an essential part of the college educa- 

 tion and discipline and training. In these respects 



