one. Should objection be made to printing this list, it might be represented that there is no other means by which the Legislature and the people can judge of the manner in which the public funds have been used. A library is always a costly establishment, and a library without a printed catalogue is as good as useless to all except the few persons who have the leisure to acquire personal familiarity with the works as they stand on the shelves. From printed lists any citizen can in a very short time ascertain what works this institution possesses. The library thus becomes known to the whole State, and becomes in fact as well as in theory accessible to all. I respectfully renew my recommendation that the annual appropriation for the library, now fixed at $500, be raised to at least $2,000.

BUILDINGS.

Since the close of the period covered by this report the new buildings have been so far completed as to be partially occupied, but as much remains to be done, any elaborate descriptive report is necessarily postponed till another year. I would respectfully recommend that the second story of the Agricultural College be finished up as soon as possible, as the rooms will be much needed.

THE GROUNDS.

So soon as the new buildings shall have been finished up and all rubbish removed, some reasonable outlay should be made upon these grounds. No great expense need be at once incurred, inasmuch as no suitable system of improvement and decoration can be carried out until the institution shall have come into possession of certain adjoining property. To show the shape and environment of the grounds, and the need of the proposed additions, the accompanying map, prepared by Professor Rhame, is submitted. The heavy dotted line shows the old or present boundary of the campus, and the heavy black line the proposed new boundary. Unless a suitable area, both as to size and surroundings, can thus be secured, the institution ought to be removed to a more favorable site. No private lots should abut against a college campus.

APPARATUS.

The additions to the apparatus have been large and valuable. Indeed, it should be said that hitherto the institution has had no "outfit" in this respect. The new chemical laboratory, although inferior in size, will be equal in point of equipment to any in the West. Much credit is due not only to the ingenuity but to the energy of the professor, who gave nearly the whole of his summer vacation, without compensation, to fitting up this laboratory.

The supply of physical, engineering, and mineralogical apparatus fairly suffice for present demands. It ought to be remembered that to keep pace with the advancement of the sciences and the probable growth of the institution, that not less than one thousand dollars a year must be spent upon apparatus and instruments.

GEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY.

The geological portion proper of this enterprise I judge to be making commendable progress. The chemical investigations, for a long time past held in abeyance, awaiting the completion of the laboratory, can now be vigorously prosecuted. I venture to renew a suggestion offered in the last report, that the botanical and entomological departments of the survey should at once be taken in hand. To this end a professor of botany and entomology must be employed. The topographical work may progress slowly for a few years, but steady preparations should be going on for extensive and thorough work when the proper time shall arrive.

The museum, of which the professor of geology is curator, has received very considerable accessions, among which may be mentioned a full collection of Ward's Casts of Celebrated Fossils, secured through the liberality of citizens of Minneopolis.

COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE.

This department is still slow in development, and no means have been taken in this institution to make a factitious showing of it. It is the fact that, as yet, our farmers' sons and daughters, who constitute nearly one-half of our student body, come to us preferring to pursue general scientific and literary studies, rather than such as relate directly to agriculture. Two young men form the only exceptions to this statement during the year covered by this report, oneof whom left before the close of the year. Both were in the elementary course.

The operations of the Experimental Farm are fully described in the accompanying report of Assistant Professor Lacy. The annual meeting of the State Agricultural Society convened at the University in February, and the summer meeting of the State Horticultural Society in June. There is reason to hope that these societies will hereafter frequently meet at the University. The suggestions of Professor Lacy in regard to the size, location, and general suitability of the present experimental farm, seem to be worthy of serious consideration.

COLLEGE OF MECHANIC ARTS.

This department seems to offer greater attractions than that just named. As already shown, there were seven young men on the rolls, two of whom were graduated as Bachelors of Civil Engineering at the Commencement. One other gentleman, Mr. Clarke Stewart, a member of the College of Science, Literature and the Arts, having completed the course in civil engineering, received the same degree. It should be remarked that students do not enter this department until Junior year, or a much larger number of names could be reported. Along with the rapid development of manufactures and transportation, and the growth of our cities, there must be a steadily increasing demand for engineers, both civil and mechanical, and for architects. Accordingly this college of the University ought to be so well equipped and efficiently manned as to allow of no excuse for young men adopting the professions indicated to go out of the State for their technical education. Among the appliances most needed at present is a small steam engine of sufficient power to drive a lathe, a drill, and a planer. While the engine would serve excellently as a picce of apparatus for instruction, it would enable the professors and students to manufacture many articles of apparatus, which would otherwise have to be purchased at high prices. The sum of five hundred dollars would be sufficient to pay for the engine, to set it up and supply the necessary connections and shafting. Steam can be taken from one of the boilers of the beating apparatus.

NEW DEPARTMENTS.

Many inquiries reach me in the course of correspondence in regard to departments not yet organized. Some of these relate to medicine, but the greater part to law, and nearly all appear to come from uneducated young men, who desire to enter upon a course of professional studies, without scientific and literary preparation. Whether the State ought to establish and support expensive law and medical colleges, for the instruction of such candidates, is a question which, perhaps fortunately, need not be argued, inasmuch as the present income at the disposal of the Board does not warrant the opening of new departments. I trust, however, that not many years will pass before it shall be possible to open a law department, of such character as a public-endowed institution alone can open. This department can be organized at a comparatively small outlay, and if necessary could be made nearly self-supporting.

NEW PROFESSORSHIPS.

Reference has been already made to the pressing need of a pro fessor of Botany and Entomology. Hardly less pressing is the need of a full professor in the department of Physics. The professor of Chemistry, now in nominal charge of Physics, cannot possibly give instruction in the two subjects. The science of Physics has received

an immense development of late years. It is the science of the steam engine, the electric telegraph, of the modern optical and astronomical apparatus, of heating, lighting and ventilation, and of all the great natural processes and transformations. No university can long postpone the complete and independent establishment of the Chair of Physics.

SECRET SOCIETIES.

I deem it a matter of duty to apprise the Board, that just before the close of the previous year, one of the student societies of the country, frequently spoken of as "Greek Letter Societies," had established a so-called "Chapter" in the University. Inasmuch as these organizations are tolerated in most of the older American colleges, the General Faculty have not deemed it necessary to interfere with the one appearing here. While I might therefore be excused from further reference to the subject, I feel that I should do less than my duty, if I did not at this time express my extreme regret at the formation of this chapter, and briefly add my opinion of all such societies. While I have been connected with one of the most reputable of them, I think myself bound to say that they are not only unnecessary, but they are sometimes positively vicious and injurious in their influence. Among the objections which, irrespective of the general charge of uselessness, might be urged against these soeieties, are the following:

(1) They are frequently injurious to the authorized literary societies of the college. This fact is already apparent here.

(2) They create jealousy and unfriendliness, by dividing the classes and student body into permanent cliques, defending and upholding their members, irrespective of merit or right.

(3) They are costly, both of time and money.

(4) They occasion expensive conviviality, and have been known to lead to dissipation.

(5) They furnish ready and convenient organizations for obstructing the college discipline.

(6) They are peculiarly inappropriate in a free public institution open to both sexes.

It

These considerations I respectfully submit, to be estimated at their proper value, without offering any proposition or plan of action. is a fair question for consideration, whether it were better at once to prohibit the existence of secret societies among our students, and to enforce the prohibition by whatever measures might be necessary, or to let them alone, trusting to the good sense of their members to render them, for the present, as little obnoxious and mischievous as possible, and to the spread of a public sentiment, already powerful in some of the greater colleges, to work their ultimate extinction.

With our new buildings, apparatus, and appliances, the University enters, at the opening of a new year, upon a new era The institu tion will stand fairly on college ground. The number of college students proper will be above the average of that American colleges. Thanks to the liberal provisions of the Legislature, we can