in the work being done here to fit their sons for the practical callings of everyday life. An admirable spirit has pervaded the entire student body, manifesting itself in a cheerful acquiesence in the regulations and authority of the college and in an earnest application to study and work. I can renew the expression of my last report which contained grateful recognition of the fact that no discord has disturbed the college during my connection with it, and that the students have been united and harmonious, with a growing industrial spirit so essential to success. It will be remembered that the attention of the last legislature was called to the seeming discrimination against a deserving class of poor but worthy young white boys in favor of some 46 colored students, who were receiving free education at Prairie View; and probably with a view of equalizing the bounty of the State to some extent, the legislature appropriated $5,000 each year as a student labor fund, designed to aid all those who were willing to work to obtain means to defray expenses. (For the next two years this will be $8,000 per year.) In the recent report of the Vermont College the trustees say, after expending an annual appropriation of $3,000, that student labor is expensive, and from the standpoint of economy undesirable. Students lack the strength and experience of older men, and because of their inexperience they destroy and damage property to a considerable extent. It is probably safe to say that the same work might be done by regular laborers at a saving of 40 per cent. Yet, on the other hand, the class of students who desire to be thus aided is of the very best. The necessity for self-help cultivates self-reliance, and the expenditure tends to build up good citizens and aids in the diffusion of intelligence throughout the State. Such students have, moreover, a keener appreciation of the advantages thus offered. From this standpoint the expenditure for this kind of labor is entirely justifiable. Several other States have established a labor fund.

In regard to the operation of the student labor fund in this college, I give the following from Professor Connel's report:

The student labor system, inaugurated at the beginning of last year, October, 1893, has been productive of many good results, and I beg leave to mention some of these in the order of their importance.

First. A large number of boys coming under the instruction of the department of agriculture have been kept in sympathy with their studies and with labor generally by the obligatory paid system of student labor that has been instituted.

Second. The fund of technical agricultural knowledge has been largely increased by the boys' contact with actual farm work.

Third. Many of our best students who are poorly supplied with money have been able, largely through their own efforts, to support themselves at college while obtaining a practical education.

Fourth. The system of student labor as applied here (on the basis of full payment only for the best work and greatest interest shown in the work) is calculated to give great encouragement and serves as a reward of merit to the deserving.

Fifth. The responsibility attached to the work and the system of grading off for work improperly done is highly instructive to the average Southern boy who knows little or nothing of business responsibilities. Although the work performed in the fields, dairy, and barns, for which a part of the appropriation of the last legislature was used, is not economically spent if judged only by the work returned, yet there is no question of the wisdom of the expenditure when viewed from the higher standpoint of education.

I also quote from the report of Professor Whitlock, professor of mechanical engineering:

The question of student labor has had but little effect on the actual work of the department, as but little of it could be utilized; but its effects are more marked in

the different plants which are run in connection with this department, and as here used it has benefited the students even more than it has the college, as a number of young men have availed themselves of this opportunity and are earning almost if not quite enough to pay their way through the year.

The following table will exhibit the growth and change in the personnel of students and professors of the college from its beginning up to the present time.

The number of students noted as matriculates for the year 1892-93 only shows those admitted, the policy being to deny admission beyond what the college can provide for comfortably. Large numbers were turned away each of these years. For the year 1894 the number of admissions is only up to December 1 of that year.

The following was the course of study as shown by the catalogue of 1894-5:

There are two regular courses of study and practice leading to degrees and extending through four years each. They are identical for the first year, thus giving the students the advantage of an elementary training in subjects that are of equal importance to everyone, and affording opportunity for intelligent choice between the courses as continued separately through the three succeeding years. In the third year or second class, there is a still further specialization by which the student may, in the agricultural course, vary his studies with reference to obtaining either of two degrees-that is, Bachelor of Scientific Horticulture (B. S. H.) or Bachelor of Scientific Agriculture (B. S. A.).

In the mechanical course a similar specialization is provided for by which the student is given the choice between the degrees of Bachelor of Civil Engineering (B. C. E.) and Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering (B. M. E.) By faculty regulation these several degrees were replaced after June 1, 1895, by the degree of Bachelor of Science (B. S.), the course in which the degree is taken being specified in the diploma; as, for instance, Bachelor of Science (in Agriculture).

All regular students must pursue either the agricultural or the mechanical course, and there is no course of instruction which is not industrial. The languages are optional, except as shown in the curricula, and may be studied as courses outside of the regular courses. There is no charge for any optional study.

In view of the great practical importance of the German and Spanish languages for business purposes in our State, special attention is given them. In the curricula of studies, the numeral indicates the number of hours per week devoted to each study.

AGRICULTURAL COURSE.

First year (fourth class).-Fall term: Arithmetic (5); grammar, composition, declamation, history of Texas (10); elementary agriculture (2). Practice: Carpentry work (4); agricultural and horticultural work (4); free-hand drawing and penmanship (3); infantry drill (3).

Winter term: Arithmetic and algebra (5); grammar, composition, declamation, history of United States (10); domestic animals (4). Practice: Same as fall term.

Spring term: Algebra (5); grammar, composition, declamation, history of United States (10); bookkeeping (2). Practice: Carpentry work (4); free-hand drawing (14); agricultural and horticultural work (4); infantry drill (3).

Second year (third class).-Fall term: Algebra (5); advanced grammar, composition, declamation, general history (5); elementary botany and fruit culture (4); elementary physics (4). Practice: Agricultural and horticultural work (5); free-hand drawing (14); Infantry drill (3).

Winter term: Algebra and geometry (5); advanced grammar, composition, declamation, history (5); dairying (4); elementary physics (3); physiology (3). Practice: Agricultural and horticultural work (5); free-hand drawing (14).

Spring term: Geometry (5); rhetoric, composition, declamation, general history (5); grasses (3); vegetable culture (2); systematic botany (4). Practice: Agricultural and horticultural work (5); drawing (3); drill (3).

Third year (second class).—Fall term: Geometry and algebra (3); inorganic chemistry (4); breeding of live stock (5); entomology (2);

veterinary medicine (2).

Practice: Agricultural and horticultural

work (5); analytical chemistry (2); infantry drill (3).

Winter term: Algebra (3); English, history of Greece and Rome, essays (4); inorganic chemistry (4); veterinary medicine (2); drill regulations (2). Practice: Same as fall term except no drill.

Spring term: Trigonometry (3); English, civil government, essays (2); drainage (4); inorganic chemistry (4); surveying (3). Practice: Agricultural work (24); analytical chemistry (5); field work and surveying (-); zoology (2); infantry and artillery drill (3).

Fourth year (first class).-Fall term: Lectures on English literature, English history (4); feeds (5); advanced chemistry (4); veterinary surgery, anatomy, materia medica (3). Practice: Agricultural experiments (24); analytical chemistry (4); veterinary practice, infantry drill (3).

Winter term: Farm machinery (5); landscape gardening (1); veterinary surgery, anatomy, materia medica (3); agricultural chemistry (5); lectures on military science (1). Practice: Agricultural work (4); analytical chemistry (24); dissecting, (4).

Spring term: Lectures on English literature, English history (2); farm management (5); veterinary surgery, anatomy, obstetrics (3); forage plants (2); injurious insects (2). Practice: Agricultural work (5); veterinary practice, (2); infantry drill, (3); graduating thesis.

HORTICULTURAL COURSE.

Third year (second class).-Fall term: Geometry and algebra (3); analytical chemistry (4); entomology (2); structural botany (4); German or Latin (3); veterinary medicine (2). Practice: Agricultural and horticultural work (5); analytical chemistry (2); entomology (2); infantry drill (3).

Winter term: Algebra (3); English, history of Greece and Rome, essays (4); inorganic chemistry (4); German or Latin (3); drill regulations (2); veterinary medicine (2). Practice: Botany (2); analytical chemistry (5).

Spring term: Trigonometry (3); English, civil government, essays (2); organic chemistry (4); small fruit culture (3); surveying (3); German or Latin (3). Practice: Horticulture (2); analytical chemistry (5); zoology (2); fieldwork and surveying (-); infantry and artillery drill (2).

Fourth year (first class).—Fall term: Lectures on English literature, English history (4); advanced chemistry (4); fungi and plant diseases (2); horticulture (2); German or Latin (3); veterinary surgery (3). Practice: Botany (5); analytical chemistry (4); veterinary practice (2); infantry drill (3).

Winter term: Landscape gardening (1); fertilizers (3); agricultural chemistry (5); German or Latin (3); lectures on military science

(1); veterinary surgery (3). Practice: Analytical chemistry (24); horticulture (5); veterinary practice (4).

Spring term: Lectures on English literature, history (2); plant variation and breeding (2); injurious insects (2); forage plants (2); German or Latin (3); fungi and plant diseases (2); veterinary surgery (3). Practice: Same as winter term; infantry and artillery drill.

MECHANICAL COURSE.

First year (fourth class).—Same as agricultural course.

Second year (third class).-Fall term: Algebra (5); M. E. lectures (2); advanced grammar, composition, declamation, general history (5); elementary physics (4). Practice: Shopwork (5); mechanical drawing (3); drill (3).

Winter term: Algebra and geometry (5); M. E. lectures (2); advanced grammar, composition, declamation, general history (5); elementary physics (2). Practice: Same as above, except no drill.

Spring term: Geometry (5) M. E. lectures (4); rhetoric, composition, declamation, general history (5); electricity and magnetism (3). Practice: Same as fall term.

Third year (second class).—(For B. S. degree in mechanical engineering). Fall term: Geometry and algebra (5); descriptive geometry (5); inorganic chemistry (4); steam engine (4). Practice: Shopwork (5); mechanical drawing (4); infantry drill (3).

Winter term: Algebra (4); inorganic chemistry (4); steam engine (4); drill regulations (2). Practice: As above, except drill.

Spring term: Trigonometry (4); slide valve (4); metallurgy (4); English, civil government, essays (2); surveying (3); kinematic drawing (1). Practice: Same as fall term, except field practice and surveying added.

Fourth year (first class).-Fall term: Analytical geometry, mechanics (5); graphics (5); metallurgy (4); letters on English history (4). Practice: Experimental work in engineering (5); metallurgy (2); mechanical drawing (4); drill (3).

Winter term: Analytical geometry and calculus (5); mechanism (5); metallurgy (3); machine design (4); lectures on military science (1). Practice: As above, except drill.

Spring term: Calculus (5); lectures on English literature and history (2); mechanical engineering (5); machine design (3). Practice: Experimental work in engineering (5); metallurgy (2); machine design and drawing (24); infantry drill (3); graduation thesis.

Third year (second class).—(B. S. in civil engineering.) Fall term: Geometry and algebra (5); descriptive geometry (5); inorganic chemistry (4); road making and maintenance (2); German or Spanish (3). Practice: Shopwork (5); drawing (4); infantry drill (3).