Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1868 [PAGE 209]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

19T several departments in Zoology; and Prof. Powell, of the Chair of Natural History, is now absent in charge of a scientific expedition to the region of the Colorado of the North, making additional collections. The illustrative apparatus in the Departments of Agriculture is designed to be very full and complete. The University owns over one thousand acres of improved farming lands, equal to any in the State. Forty acres are set apart for gardens, nurseries, and specimen orchards. The remainder are to be used for experimental and stock farms, orchards, arboretums, etc. Through the liberality of manufacturers, the University is rapidly accumulating a collection of agricultural implements; and cabinets and drawings of specimen fruits, vegetables, etc., will be added as fast as practicable. The ornamental grounds around the building already contain a large variety of evergreens and flowering plants. A collection of maps, charts, models, and engravings, is also begun, and is being steadily increased by donation or purchase.

THE LABOR SYSTEM.

Practice in some form, and to some extent, is indispensable to a practical education. It is the divorcement of the theoretical and practical which renders so much of education mere " book learning." To guard against this fatal defect, the trustees have directed that the manual labor system shall be thoroughly tried, and all students who are not excused on account of physical inability are required to labor from one to three hours each day, except Saturday and Sunday. During the Spring term the labor occupied two hours each day. During the Autumn it will occupy less rather than more time. The students go out in squads, under their military officers, and under the general supervision of members of the Faculty. The labor is designed to be educational, and to exhibit the practical applications of the theories taught by the text books and in the lecture room. Thus far it has been popular among the students, several attributing to it the preservation of their health through a long term of severe study. They accomplished, altogether, a large amount of valuable work, and were proud to point to the grounds, fenced, planted with trees, and ornamented by their own labor. It was found to facilitate, rather than hinder