Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1878 [PAGE 131]

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131 SCHOOL O F H O R T I C U L T U R E .

OBJECT OF T H E SCHOOL.

The aim of this school is to afford a scientific and practical education specially adapted to the wants of those who cultivate garden and orchard plants, or wish to manage nurseries, parks and pleasure grounds.

INSTRUCTION.

The instruction is both theoretical and practical. The class-room recitations and lectures are supplemented by practice in the fields and plant houses. The course recommended for those intending to prepare for the duties of the practical horticulturalist, is given below. A t the end of the course a thesis is required upon some subject connected with horticultural science or pursuits. This must be the record of original experiment or research, with appropriate deductions. Suitable illustrations are to accompany the paper. All theses will be deposited in the library of the University.

APPARATUS.

Ample provision is made for the illustration of the subjects taught. The cabinet contains among other things : a series of colored plastercasts of fruits prepared at the University; modeles clastiques of fruits and flowers by Auzoux of Paris ; collections of seeds of native and exotic p l a n t s ; of specimens of native and foreign woods ; of beneficial and injurious insects, and specimens showing their work ; numerous dry and alcoholic specimens and preparations ; maps, charts, diagrams, drawings, etc. The school is well supplied with compound microscopes and apparatus, and students have abundant opportunity to learn their use, and to make practical investigations with them. The herbarium is rich in specimens of useful and noxious plants, including many of the fungous parasites which cause disease to cultivated crops. Upon the grounds devoted to the use of the school, there are : 1. A very large specimen apple orchard, planted in the year 1869, and containing above 1,000 varieties,—many varieties of pears, cherries, grapes, and small fruits. 2. A nursery of young trees, in which students have regular work in propagation, etc. 3. A forest-tree plantation, embracing the most useful kinds of timber. 4. An aboretum in which all hardy, indigenous and exotic trees are planted as fast as they can be secured, and now containing nearly 100 varieties. The ornamental grounds which surround the University building, embrace about twenty acres, and are kept in neat and attractive style. These, with all the adjuncts of trees and flowering shrubs, lawn and beds of flowers and foliage plants, walks of different material, and styles of laying out, give illustration to the class-room work in landscape gardening. A spacious green-house, much enlarged the past year, contains a collection of plants of great value for t h e classes in floriculture and landscape gardening, besides furnishing students with practice in hot-house and green-house management. The library contains the best literature upon these subjects.