The Portland daily press., 1872-12-30

class three members graduated as Civil En-
gineers. During their course, they executed
bet yeen thirty and forty drawings apiece,
some of them being complicated; made
railroad survey of about mile in length; de-
signed a number of beams, bridges, retaining
walls and arches; besides solving many small
er problems, and doing large amount OF
field work.
The department of chemistry and The
modern languages continues under the III
rection of Prof. Packard, who gives partlcu-
lar attention to the practical uses OF cneiiii'
try. The department of natural history mas
been commenced the past year under rroi' 70
FL. Fernald. The study of botany mas peen
prosecuted with success as well as practical
| an,icultura Prof Fernald has given the So
| nbomores instruction in free hand drawing.
The military instruction required by Con-
GROSS has oeen given by Capt. Deane of Ban
cor. A course of lessons in bookkeeping
and commercial forms has been given by Mr..
Pelley.
The experiment ofmanual labor has proved
highly satisfactory. One thousand dollars
have been paid to students for farm work and
improvements and the Faculty regret that
they have not the me- ans to afford more EN-
ploymsnt. In this connection the President
says:
In place of remuneratsd labor, the uppe
classes have employed, under the direction
of a professor, the three required hours 0
daily work in the field or in the laborator,
pursuing their studies, and thus acquiring
practical education.
A part of the work performed on the farm
has been devoted to the prosecution ofexper
imeuts for the promotion of agriculture
Few farmers possess the facilities for con
Quoting accurate experiments, which settl
principles and increase the general knowl
edge OF the science of agriculture. No on
| supposes that these carefully conducted ez
. periments will be attended with immediat
pecuniary returns. The object of the in
quiry IS to settle vexed questions of practice
and to establish firmly the great prinei pie
that underlie all successful efforts in farming
The whole community reaps the benefit {
these experiments. As there are no shop
for mechanical work large portion of th
time the students cannot be employed in mar
ual labor.
The last Legislature wisely made provisio
for the admission of the young ladies to tt
benefits of the institution, and one entere
last fall.
In concluding his report President ALE
0 says:
The cordial interest of the people in tn
e vicinity and the qualification which man
@ visitors from different parts of the State hay
expressed in the aims and methods of Il
Maine State College, will lead, we hope,
more substantial proofs of sympathy on II
part of individuals and the Legislature. II
c cabinet and library should be enriche
d More buildings are needed, and greater e
: dowment should be secured to enlarge Il
| sphere of usefulness of the institution and
} accommodate the increasing numbers of ST
IS dents.
It The report of the Farm Superintendel
o contains much that will prove Of grest int
est to the intelligent farmer, embracing as
h does carefully conducted experiments with
y large variety of fertilizers applied to vario
d crops and different varieties of seeds, and Q
Il pcriments testing the fattening qualities
= various Xxi IDS of food for animals. The lii
d its of the present notice do not allow us
l. present the results. of any of these intere
ing experiments, but at an early day we no
to presents summary of them.
j. The report in full is one of the most int
n esting and valuable that will be made to t
IS Legislature and it is to be hoped that a
y ran ements will be made to literally distr
: ute it among our people.