Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1870 [PAGE 25]

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IX

and the mechanic arts, is recognized in the interest that crowds the somewhat contracted limits of that department, with students. The advanced class in chemistry nearly fills the 24 tables of the working laboratory, and the new class of nearly 50 members overflows the recitation room, and will soon need a place for work. Agriculture and mechanics, besides being made the objects of direct study in the class-room, are being extensively illustrated and taught in the fields and shops. A large experimental orchard, comprising 1,200 varieties of apples, is already planted and growing thriftily; 400 varieties of pears, besides varieties of peaches and other fruits, are propagating for farther planting, and will be ready by the time the sites on which they are to be planted can be properly ameliorated by drainage and tillage. A green-house already been two years in use, and a larger glass structure has just been finished which is expected to receive some liberal donations of valuable exotic plants, especially those known in commerce—such as the Date, Sago and Fan Palms, Pine Apple, etc. A large collection of young forest trees of the more valuable species, for lumber, etc., has been made in the nurseries. These, as they attain sufficient size, are to be transplanted into permanent plantations, to test the values of the different species for this purpose. The experimental grounds are still under process of preparation by thorough tile-draining, which is being done by student labor. Two large and convenient barns have been erected on the experimental and stock farms, with due regard to economy and thoroughness of construction. In the somewhat crowded space of the shops, the mechanical students are not only performing a limited amount of labor as a means of instruction, but are furnished with remunerative employment, which might be indefinitely extended by an enlargement of the shop, and furnish facilities for other work. At present these students are engaged in the making of patterns for fcunderies, stuff for picture frames, and the frames themselves, and have lately finished the work of fitting and putting up the steam heating apparatus in the University building, at a total cost of material, freights, etc., of $1,469 83, being more than $500 less than the amount appropriated by the Executive Committee for the purpose, and more than $3,500 less than the amount for which responsible parties were willing to contract to do the work. The zeal and inter-