should be taught to render the instruction in English of the greatest possible educational value, and to facilitate the comprehension of scientific terms. French and German will be found all essential for the more advanced study of agricultural science. As to the sciences themselves, those most nearly related to the soil and treating of its chemical and physical properties and changes, would seem to claim first attention: chemistry, studied principally with reference to its bearings upon agriculture, fertilizers and animal foods, geology, and mineralogy. Biological work-an illimitable field, and one in which it is most easy for students to be led beyond the borders of the practical-after the neces sary preliminary instruction, should be confined strictly to the application of its many branches to farm life and farm economy; as, for example, economic entomology, structural and physiological botany, and so much of zoology and ornithology as relates directly to domestic animals, farm pests, etc. Comparative anatomy, bacteriology, and animal physiology are of value as far as they are related to veterinary science. The extent of the instruction given under the names of agriculture, horticulture, and stock raising, of course, must depend upon the amount of time allowed by the length of the course and upon the local agricultural conditions. In no case does it seem allowable to omit instruction in general farm management, business customs, and farm law, or bookkeeping and farm accounts. No agricultural course could be called complete in which no attention was given to those branches of learning which look to the production of a good citizen, as well as a good farmer. As a consequence, at least an outline course in general and constitutional history should be offered, together with the study of the duties of citizenship and the essentials of political economy. The mathematical work of such a course would naturally be of the nature expressed by the term "applied," as would also be the instruction in physics and in mechanics.

An ideal mechanical course would seem-while including all the more liberal branches of the course thus roughly outlined above-to substitute for the work in agriculture, horticulture, and, to a great extent, in the natural sciences, laboratory practice in the physical department, higher mathematics, mechanical drawing, and manual labor in the mechanical shops. A four years' course, embracing carpenter work, forge and furnace work, machine construction and design, and the principles of mechanical engineering, might clearly be made sufficiently thorough and complete to enable the graduate to at once take his place as a skilled mechanic, draftsman, or engineer.

Such being the possibilities with which the agricultural and mechanical colleges have been endowed, it is hoped in the following pages to convey an idea of how and to what extent they have performed the functions allotted to them.

AGRICULTURAL INSTRUCTION IN COLLEGES RECEIVING FEDERAL AND STATE AID.

Properly speaking, agricultural education is comparatively a modern idea. The very liberal endowments of the General Government have resulted in the establishment of schools offering instruction in scientific agriculture in every section of the United States, but it must be remembered that prior to 1835 they were features of the educational system wholly unknown in this country. In Europe by the close of the last century several such institutions had been successfully inaugurated, although their work was still but little understood and their possibilities wholly unrealized. While the earliest attempt to found an agricultural school may be said to be that of the Abbé Rosier, in France, in 1775, it was not until 1799, when Emanuel von Fellenberg established the school of Hofwyl upon his estate near Berne, that agricultural education may really be considered to have been begun. In the same year a similar institution was organized at Korenian, in Bohemia, which was followed, in 1803, by the founding of an industrial school at Prague, where instruction was not confined to agriculture, but embraced chemistry, physics, mathematics and drawing, and mechanics and technology.

From this time the number of schools where agriculture was made the first or at least an important department of instruction increased steadily, if not with great rapidity. France, Prussia, Austria, Bavaria, Saxony, and Belgium soon saw the advantage to be gained by thus securing the special training of the farming classes, and institutions differing in grade and in the principles adopted as to methods of work were instituted in the most favorable farming regions. In some of the European states chairs of agriculture were established in the universities, although this was not until after some advancement had been made in the study of the natural sciences.

England responded somewhat slowly to the movement for agricultural education, and as late as the middle of the present century there were but five such schools in the country, while in Ireland over sixty had been established, mostly, however, of an inferior grade. Considerable interest was taken in the subject by Russia, where, by 1850, about sixty-five schools offered agricultural instruction.

In 1851 Prof. Hitchcock estimated that the number of agricultural schools, including departments of universities, etc., in Europe, was:

Since 1840 the systems of agricultural education adopted by the European nations have been an essential part of their economic organization. Many excellent accounts of their methods and their work have been published.

The first agricultural school established in the United States was probably that begun in Seneca County, N. Y., near the town of Ovid, in 1856. This institution was founded in part by the State of New York, in part by private subscription, and was modeled upon the plan of the European schools then in existence.

In 1857 the Michigan State Agricultural College was formally opened. This college owes its existence to the State government, which, in 1855, made provision for its founding in compliance with the constitution of the State, adopted in 1850. In 1857 the proceeds of the sales of certain granted salt-lands and an appropriation of $40,000 were given by the legislature, a tract of nearly seven hundred acres for a farm purchased, and a suitable building erected. The Agricultural College of Michigan is thus the oldest of the "State agricultural colleges."

Following the establishment of the Michigan College, several similar institutions were put in operation in the Eastern States and in the more thickly settled farming regions of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. Among those were the Agricultural College of Ohio, at Cleveland, and the Farmers' College, near Cincinnati. In Pennsylvania in 1855 the State Agricultural Society organized the Farmers' High School, afterwards the Pennsylvania Agricultural College and now the Pennsylvania State College. The Maryland Agricultural College, organized by private subscription, is, next to the Michigan Agricultural College, the oldest of the State colleges.

But while for several years, until the first Federal endowment act became a law, the States themselves made little effort to encourage the study of scientific agriculture, we find that agricultural instruction was made a part of the regular course in not a few of the higher educational institutions. Chairs of agriculture were maintained at Yale College and in colleges in more than one of the Southern States. So, too, as early as 1845 agriculture was taught theoretically in private schools, as, for instance, the Cream Hill Agricultural School, at West Cornwall, Conn.

The great impetus given to the movement for the advancement in agricultural knowledge by the passage of the first Morrill act of 1862 was, perhaps, most strongly felt in the Western and Southwestern States where the still comparatively new population eagerly grasped at the opportunity thus afforded to secure more light upon the questions relating to the cultivation of the land and the most economical conduct of their agricultural interests. The manner in which the States and Territories accepted the provisions of the grant and the history and character of the colleges which were everywhere established in compliance therewith are given in a subsequent part of this report.

Let us now examine the courses of instruction offered by these colleges, and especially those which are particularly designated by the name of agricultural course.

The "sciences allied to agriculture" are, of course, both natural and physical; in fact, it would be somewhat difficult to exactly define the extension of this expression, since few of the departments of modern science have not, or may not have, practical application upon the farm. A narrower meaning must, however, be given it in speaking of the work of institutions of learning which seek to prepare the student for the active duties of the agriculturist. Here the "sciences allied to agriculture" may properly be understood to be horticulture, botany, chemistry, general biology-but more especially zoology and entomology, geology, mineralogy, meteorology, veterinary science, physics, and applied mechanics. In addition to these purely technical branches, it is very generally conceded that each student in the agricultural college should receive enough of instruction in the more liberal studies to make his education complete and fairly rounded; that the modern languages are truly requisite for advanced scientific work and for keeping up with agricultural investigations and agricultural literature, which each year is increasing in volume and in value; that the study of engineering, as far, at least, as it is applicable to farm improvements and farm surveying, is an essential feature of a properly balanced agricultural course; and, finally, that it is the duty of all such colleges to offer to their students instruction in civil government, the duties of citizenship, business methods, commercial customs, and political economy.

The department of agriculture, in most colleges kept distinct and separate, usually combines practice, to some extent, with theory. For this reason it is that some misunderstanding of its purpose exists on the part of the public. It is frequently stated that farmers do not care to send their sons to college to learn how to plow and hoe and perform the other manual operations of the farm; that such instruction may be more satisfactorily obtained at home. On the other hand, it is urged that "book farming" is not practicable under conditions confronting the student immediately upon leaving college, and that it is therefore not practical. Between these two extremes of public sentiment it has been the task of the agricultural colleges to steer, and upon the whole it would seem that they have done so successfully.

Manual labor in the field is not generally, although quite frequently, required. Where it is made compulsory, it usually consists of the regular farm work taken up according to weather and season. But the practice of inducing students to take practical outdoor work by offering them a reasonable compensation for their services has been found to be so successful that few of the colleges now neglect manual farm labor. In purely agricultural colleges such field work would cer tainly seem to be a most essential part of the course. As a rule, the

greatest objection to it, after all, comes from those who desire to take advantage of the scientific or other departments of the agricultural college without being obliged to give much attention to the work of the agricultural department. But it must be remembered that these colleges, properly speaking, were not designed for the benefit of such students.

The course of study in this department frequently begins with the history of agriculture, followed by lectures on the selection and location of farm lands, and general farm equipment. The study of soils, their chemical and physical properties, their relations to air and water and to vegetation, is next taken up, with descriptions and, if possible, illustrations of the various methods of drainage and irrigation. Soil-improvement-covering the whole field of fertilizers, natural and artificial; the composition and the use of commercial fertilizers; the preparation and care of barnyard manure, green manuring, fallowing, and the rotation of crops with reference to the retention and restoration of the chemical properties of the soil-are properly introduced at this point. Before entering upon the special study of crops, some knowledge of the construction and use of the common implements and machines employed upon the farm is considered necessary, and here the mechanical feature of the college proves especially valuable.

The line of work undertaken in the study of crop-culture, of course, varies in different States, attention being particularly given to the staple crops. After discussing the subjects of tillage and soil-dressing, some such works as Johnson's How Crops Grow, and How Crops Feed are made the basis of instruction. Then, if opportunity be given for manual labor, students are taught practically the management of the growing crops, their gathering and preparation for use or for the markets.

Along with this strictly agricultural course, the study of stockraising is pursued. Beginning with the use of a text-book upon the different breeds of domestic animals, their characteristics, habits, and respective adaptability to climate, etc., stock-breeding and stock-feeding are successively treated. In this work the investigations of the experiment stations, where experiments with the different breeds of cattle, horses, sheep, hogs, etc., are continually being conducted, can be very advantageously made use of. In colleges maintaining a chair of veterinary science, lectures and recitations are given in this connection on pathology and therapeutics.

Frequently the departments of horticulture and of botany are separate, but in the majority of cases they are united, the one preparing for advanced work in the other. Horticulture, as the term is commonly understood when applied to college instruction, embraces market gardening, landscape gardening, fruit culture, floriculture, and often even forestry. Structural botany is made the basis for the study of plant diseases, excellent facilities for which are afforded by the well equipped