varnishes; the manufacture of chemical re-agents; the art of kyanizmg wood, and of preserving meats, fruits, and vegetables from decomposition.

WISCONSIN.

In our last Annual Report was given the course of instruction pursued in the college of this State, and annexed is a list of the faculty of instruction in the department of agriculture: Paul A. Chadbourne, president; W. W. Daniels, professor of agriculture; John C. Davies, professor of chemistry and natural history; Addison E. Verrill, professor of comparative anatomy and of entomology.

The lands granted by Congress have been located, but are not yet sold. The college is now in operation as a branch of the University of Wisconsin, and has the benefit of a farm purchased for it by the citizens of the State, at a cost of forty thousand dollars. The course of study is so arranged that instruction in the class-room can be completed in a single year "by students already well acquainted with the physical sciences, while an opportunity will be given to those who desire it for extended laboratory practice, for a higher course in botany, and for instruction in conducting experiments in agriculture and horticulture, thus making a full three years' course of study."

A wide range of optional studies is given in this department in order that the students may combine thorough mental discipline with theoretic and practical knowledge of the relation of science to agriculture.

It will be the endeavor of the professors to modify their course of instruction so as to meet the wants of the people. Lectures are given by the president and resident professors, and also by non-resident professors, on subjects calculated to illustrate the studies and promote the intellectual and moral advancement of the students.

MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

W. S. Clark, President of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, supplies the following facts in relation to the history and present status of that institution:

HISTORY.

In the year 1850 ex-Governor Levi Lincoln, on behalf of the Worces ter County Agricultural Society, of which he was then president, presented to the legislature of Massachusetts a memorial upon the subject of agricultural education. While admitting that much had been done to improve the modes of cultivation and increase the products of the farm, he says: "The advance has yet been rather experimental and fortuitous than systematic, scientific, and instructive. The deep want of the husbandman is instruction in those elementary principles which give the impress of mind to his occupation. Let agriculture be raised to the dignity of a profession rather than regarded as the destiny of condition, and the labor of man will be profited as largely as the character of society will assuredly be improved."

In the same year, Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, then president of the Massachusetts Senate, introduced a series of resolves concerning the establishment of an agricultural school. These resolves authorized tl: governor to appoint a board of commissioners to prepare a plan for such

a school or college, and to select and obtain by gift or purchase a suitable farm, and appropriated fifteen thousand dollars to defray necessary expenses. The senate passed the resolves unanimously, but the house of representatives failed to concur. Nevertheless, a board of commissioners was appointed, of which Mr. Wilder was chairman, to consider the subject and report to the legislature of 1851. Dr. Edward Hitchcock, a member of the board, visited the agricultural schools of Europe, and made an elaborate report concerning them. The report of the commissioners recommended the establishment of an agricultural college with a model and experimental farm, and also a State board of agriculture. As the latter required but a small appropriation, and might be useful in preparing the way for the former, it was organized in the year 1851.

This board consists at present of one delegate from each of the incorporated agricultural societies of the State, three members at large, appointed by the governor, and, as members ex officio, the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, and the president of the agricultural college. The number of societies has gradually increased, until now there are thirty, and the board therefore contains thirty-seven members. Under the efficient management of its excellent secretary, C. L. Flint, this board has greatly benefited the agricultural interest of the Commonwealth, and its annual reports have been eagerly sought and highly valued by the farmers of Massachusetts, as well as by the intelligent friends of progressive agriculture throughout the country. By the inducements offered for the organization of societies and annual exhibitions of agricultural implements, stock, and produce of all kinds; by the aid afforded to such as were willing to form farmers' clubs for mutual improvement; by the publication and distribution of useful information upon a great variety of practical topics; and especially by a constant effort to awaken in the public mind an interest in the subject of agricul tural education, the object for which the board was established has been most successfully accomplished.

In the year 1856, members of the board procured an act of incorporation as the Massachusetts School of Agriculture, which would probably have gone into operation in Springfield, in 1862, but for the breaking out of the war.

The legislature of 1863 accepted the liberal grant of Congress of 360,000 acres of public land, and established with the proceeds of the sale of nine-tenths of it a fund for the promotion of education in agriculture and the mechanic arts. In accordance with the provisions of the act of Congress, one-tenth of the scrip was sold, and the proceeds used for the purchase of a model and experimental farm. A commissioner was appointed for the sale of the scrip, and the first 36,000 acres sold for the sum of $29,778 40, or about eighty-three cents per acre. The remaining 324,000 acres were sold for an average price of about sixty cents per acre; and the total fund now in the State treasury, derived from this source, amounts to $207,424 65. This is invested as follows: United States bonds, $80,500; Massachusetts bonds, $27,000; bonds of cities and towns, $94,200; and cash in treasury, $5,724 65. By the provisions of the land-grant act, the State is required to maintain ferever the integ rity of this fund, and to pay not less than five per cent. annual interest to the institutions selected to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts. After thorough discussion, the legislature decided to establish the Massachusetts Agricultural College as an independent institution, and to endow it with two-thirds the income of the above fund, while the remaining third was given to the

Institute of Technology, which had already begun operations in the city of Boston, with the special object of teaching science in its applications to the useful arts.

The college charter was approved April 29, 1863. Its most important provisions are as follows:

First. The board of trustees shall consist of fourteen members, elected by the legislature for life, or until removed for cause. Of the original board, one member was selected from each county of the State, and vacancies have usually been filled by the legislature upon this principle. The governor, lieutenant governor, secretaries of the boards of education and agriculture, and the president of the college faculty, are members ex officio.

Second. The college shall have a farm of not less than one hundred acres, for experimental and other purposes, and shall make suitable arrange ments for manual labor by the students.

Third. The location of the college is made dependent upon a subscrip tion of $75,000 for the erection of buildings.

Fourth. The location, plan of organization, and course of study are made subject to the approval of the legislature; but by a subsequent act they were submitted to the decision of the governor and council.

Finally. By an act approved May 26, 1866, the board of agriculture was made a board of overseers of the agricultural college, with advisory and visitorial powers, but with no authority to interfere directly with the trustees in the management of the institution. They were also authorized to transfer their valuable cabinet and library from the state-house to the college, and to hold their meetings in Amherst instead of Boston. The secretary of the Board of Agriculture is also secretary of the college, and one of its regular lecturers. The cabinet, which illustrates admirably the geology and natural history of the State, has been removed to the college, and the board holds one of its two annual meetings in Amherst. An examining committee, of which Prof. Agassiz is the present chairman, attends the closing exercises of each term, and reports annually to the board upon the condition of the institution.

LOCATION.

The trustees, with the approval of the governor and council, purchased, in the autumn of 1864, a tract of land in the valley of the Connecticut, in the midst of the best farming district of the Commonwealth, containing three hundred and eighty-three and one-half acres, and situated in the towns of Amherst and Hadley. The portion in Hadley, comprising about one hundred acres, is low, level land, bounded on the west by Mill River, and covered originally with heavy timber. The soil is black and rich, but requires drainage for profitable cultivation. At present about fifteen acres are in wood, principally white and yellow pine and oak, and the rest is used for pasturage. From this level tract the land gradually rises toward the east, until in about the center of the estate it reaches an elevation of one hundred feet above the stream on the west line. From this central ridge there is a gentle slope to a rivulet which, entering the farm on the south line, runs north to the center, when it turns at right angles and flows through a beautiful wooded ravine due west to Mill River. From this rivulet, now named Bucolic River, the land rises to the wooded summit of Mount Pleasant, near the east line, which reaches an elevation of nearly three hundred feet above the western portion of the property. From a prospect tower upon this eminence, the beholder may survey every portion of the college estate, and looking to the west,