Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1872 [PAGE 72]

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nothing here of the other departments o earning and of art, which will also be "knocking at our doors, ere long, for representation here, nor of the new features which all our departments will develop by their own natural growth. Such an institution can. never safely pause in its progress and development. I t is not the dead past, but the living present, with which we have always to keep in active sympathy and mutual support. I have given to the Committee on Finance the items of estimates for the coming year, and this committee will report the same with such modifications as your actions may require.

T H E FACULTY AWD INSTRUCTORS.

The number of Professors and assistant teachers now employed in the University is seventeen, viz: The Regent and ten Professors; two Lecturers; two Instructors ; and two assistants in the Laboratory. There have been added to the Faculty during the year, Prof. D. C. Taft, Professor of Geology and Zoology ; Prof. J". F . Carey, Professor of Ancient Language and Ancient History; Prof. J. B. Webb, Professor of Civil Engineering; Mr. Harold Hanson, Instructor in Architectural and Free-Hand Drawing; Mr. Thomas Meehan, of the Gardeners1 Monthly, was employed for a course of lectures in Horticulture ; and Judge J. O. Cunningham is, by my request, delivering the lectures on Commercial and Constitutional Law. Some further additions to the Board of Instruction will be needed for the coming year, as soon as proper persons can be found to fill the places. Among these we ask the early appointment of a Professor of Agricultural Chemistry. The Department of Chemistry in such an institution is too large, and involves altogether too much labor for one man ; and the best interests of this College of Agriculture demand that this chair shall be filled, if possible, by the opening of the next year. No one has yet been found to fill the chair of History and Social Science, provided for at the last annual meeting ; but it is hoped the place maybe filled during the coming summer. The instruction in Book-keeping and Commercial Science has thus far been given by the Professor of German and Military Tactics. The labor is too much for one man, and cannot be performed in the best manner without more time than can be given to it by one so loaded with other duties. The classes in Book-keeping are large, and it is desirable that all students of both sexes shall learn this practical and useful art. Several assistant teachers will be needed for various departments. I t is recommended that the salaries of those Professors now receiving only $1800 a year, be raised to $2000. I make this recommendation because I believe it just to these gentlemen, and yet with some degree of hesitancy, knowing the too narrow limits of our funds. I t is obvious, that till some considerable increase in our income can be secured, we cannot make any general increase in salaries, and it has never been found feasible to maintain an equality of salaries in any such institution. The salaries now paid here, are higher than those paid at the Agricultural Colleges of Kentucky, Tennessee, Michigan and "Wisconsin. They are about the same as those paid in Iowa and Minnesota, and less than the highest salaries paid at Michigan University, Cornell University, and the Agricultural Colleges and Universities generally in the East. I know your generosity as well as your sense of justice will prompt you to give all that the funds committed to your care will permit. I t is with sincere pleasure that I testify to the fidelity and ability which have been exhibited by the entire corps of instructors. Their work, though often excessive in amount, has been done with cheerfulness and with a steady zeal for the success of their classes and the University itself. I t would seem invidious to single out any one, where so much praise is due to all.

T H E COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE.

This College embraces the schools of Agriculture proper and of Horticulture and Fruit Growing. The instruction has embraced courses of lectures on soils and on fruit growing by Prof. Burrill, on Agricultural Chemistry by Prof. Stuart: on Theory and Practice of Agriculture and Stock Breeding, etc., by Dr. Miles: on Veterinary, by Dr. Detmers, and on Gardening, by Thomas Meehan, Esq., of Philadelphia. The students in these courses have also pursued by regular class work, Botany, Zoology, Geology, Chemistry and other studies pertaining to their work. The work of the practical department of these schools will be fully shown by the reports of Prof. Burrill for the Horticultural, of Mr. Lawrence for the Stock Farm, and of Mr. Flagg for the Experimental Farm. The Horticultural Department, under the chief charge of Prof. Burrill, assisted by Mr. Yickroy as Orchardist, and Mr. Franks as Florist, has made valuable progress, although the season was most unfriendly by reason of the severe drought and the insect depredators which swarmed through our grouuds, An arrangement similar to that which has worked so well on the stock farm has been made with Mr. Yickroy, under which he is to be paid a minimum salary of $1000 a year, with the promise of a maximum of $1500, provided the net income of the gardens and other horticultural grounds will pay it. An arrangement somewhat similar to this is proposed for the Florist. If this proposition is adopted