«f A. ft M. C«ltcc«. Th« followint Icttar taken from the Dallas New* at F*b 16, **• written by |^, Li Huteoa, a former graduate of A. & M.: I Houston, Teat,, Feb. the refmrt of the board at dirertors of the Agricultural and Mechankal C'oJlcve there are two appopnattons a^ke,l for Which should rer t-ive special . ..nv •^•*•00, not only-from the I .cvslxuirt but from the pi-ople who pai for tlwee appropriations. It is probable that no investment which the State will be asked to make at that leeaitin will produce more valuable returns than these two, if they are used wisely. rtey are the appropriation of $75,- 000 for an httKintwiai Jb buildings, w • Iftafte mH (rowing departments of civil cultural, mjnhu^icbl mail engineering, i|nd tbo oddifton 000 to the nijintdnance fund, to pro vide for “the larfte increase of sn»- dema.” and establish a new de partment, t ing en I doubt, many who dl the vital metm, at set forth i tb the people Inf "I'enas them to t of metallurgy and mm- hoMrever, if there are lerirand the iniponance. of these inyekt- i and 1 wish, to iota eo demon heed there i$ once for sons in these* Tevas, w great uudei 'ITiat »s no 7 J a--- the training of theft own iese engineering branches. know, is* patera vs to any llexan. say, we need unly capital ts bnty hall id technical We o deUet<»p the truth, know lodge, fit fnmiwal th an eye -T l we money, to ipplv to «ur land of resources. native lignite, ler valuable and abUn- has been lidbitu: Wi- t ineral I them, but Brains, skillli scientific tminang and * investigations s arned on to local conditions, are far more problem * of developing wealth. From I.amdu to I'eUarkana. for example, stretches a hroadi belt within which may be found coal, lignit , shale, pottery , clay and otbei minerals in gtWt variety ar dance. In placed,i this b|lt scratched, and a few fl dastnes sprung up I who own dhem valuable ar*. as a rule, nutcbtnnn, jfar merchants, who are entirety wit technical knob’lulge and are at mercy of specatators wbo con the North and "Fast and who them in various ways, either by u i dervaluing rh* deposits and gnntl the land fur.Mjnere song, or by. per suading the orsinef and hisj neighixirs to invest in expensive einiptneni to work a meager or macceshhie de posit: or by the tboumij and one other ways m which the foreign efc- ' plaster may rake advantage of IbqaJ ignorance. ^ ■ J .? | J' ^W'e knou nothing atSuut mining tor machinery: worse still, we ktuiu nothing about the engineer we Con sult. We do not know what reputa tion he may trnar In Eutoipe utr iajti North, and he is a long way f. home. UnAe# h« intends to stay this region, he may not be as enref as he wouM he in matsers more t| W to affect hia pmfenaianal stand Could theag I engineers whom «bey have knoWn personally for years, or whose rcpuia tion in this btage wan at stake, they n-ould be saved fronj some of these pitfalls. But the Texans who have had a mining engineering education aNe few. and as they -have had to go out of the Stmt* to get it, it frequently happens that they do not return, find ing employment elsewhere. Yet they ate needed, gnd badly needed u% Texas. Kven where these minerals are mined, they are mined waMefully, and this, too, herattsd thto owners do dotpaaMr how tb improve their rule-nf-dhwaMb : methods, and there is no onettn tench thetn 1 talked rectmtiy with one of the few Texas mintng engineers who ed ucated in Michigan, has cbme bee : -to bis home and is now employed by huainesx men of hit region who have kn5wn him^jhn boyhd, to report ott mineral lands which they plan to develop. He told of a lignite 'mine* on whi^h he had recently made a re port, which had" been in operation some time, yet had never been sur veyed. When the owners found it netessary to put in a ventilating shaft/ thgy decided on his location “be guess an' be gorrah," and after hav ing sunjc ** to the level of the mine, found that they failed to . strike the engv, and were obliged to dig a ride enrey toj the air shaft, locating it by rapping on the stratum Of stone which happened to form the flo-.t We all remember the thousands of dollars lost in the early experiments in the Texas oil ^elds. Prospecting for oil seems to be a game of chance, but mining for coal and similar de pots has become an e^cact science, since by 1 , meant of test holes and sur veys an engineer will determine mu only the amount of the deposit, bin the cost; per ton of minutg and plac ing on cars at the nearest railroad. "ITle history of the World shows that every county which possesses an abundant supply of f^iel 'becomes sooiner or later an industrial coen|mr. Te*a* twill prove no exception to this, law of development, and khe need ftof engineers trained in mechan ical, electrical, metallurgical. and ar- chttectual knowledge will be as great in the near future as it is today for civil engineers. It is well known that, for ; some years now*, the Agri cultural t and Mechanical College has not beeri able to supply the demands made u|h>n it by the railroads and i ir rigation .companies for graduates in the cidll engineering course. The same thing is now true of the eioctric- al engineering course, so recently es tablished there, and all these depart ments hkve been so hampered by the grudging parsimony of the State that I for one am almost ashamed to claim it as my alma mater when I meet men from other colleges--who have visited this junkshop, as onea>f them characteki/«d its mechanical labora tory. . The legislature should not forget that Senator Tillman of South Caro lina in his recent visit to the college declared that, compared with the technical college of hia own small State, its starved condition was a Jis- grace to Texas. H. Hutson. ' ■ . I— a^ . .1 i.e ■ ■ Bug-Homers' Trip to Waco. Thy following students of animal husbandry, Kdsall, North Van Zant, Oilbert, McLeod, Chambers. Burps, A. C., Smith, A. J., Blackaller, Cut ter.‘Mcl(il. McCowan, Jones,-C. K., and Evaps, in company with Prrifs. MarshaPand Burns, have just return ed from Waco where thev were the guests of j Mann Bros, on “Wildair*’ stekic.far^n. « 1 be object of the trip was to ei- speef the farm and’•tock, thereby get ting somt idea of the real thing as Worth stock show. Mr. Mann dis cussed at length his methods of breed ing and feeding cattle—the cattle shown being ample proof of the fact that he knows his businees. One of the best calves shown us was a roan short horn steer which he has lately presented to our department of ani mal husbandry here. We were then called in to partake of a fine turkey dinner served under the direction of the charming person 7 age,'Mrs. Wesley Mann. Needless to say every boy made a record. After dinner we took a turn through horse bams, seeing such horses as old Alcye Wilkes, the sirs of the famous trotting horse (Wsinscot) which Mr. Msnn raised and sold for $10,000. Wainscot has since lower ed the trotting record in Europe and is now in Italy. Wilda* farm con tinues to raise the same kind. Mr. Mann then had a d*ce lot of jacks brought out and delivered an interesting lecture on the case. jacks, he ld it ions re- demand and tule. We machinery, selection, and breeding sides touching on tfaje- lating to the production, market of the Texas then inspected the fa including such machines as feed grinders, gasoline engine, and up-to- date wheat harvesting; machinery. Everyone was impressed with the nearness and precision of^system prev alent everywhere. 'Twas With regretful hearts that we mounted the tally ho at * five o'clock for our homeward journey, each man feeling that he had learned more in the day than coubi have ibeen gotten from books of. theory in Uonths. 'C. M. Evans. ATHLETICS. wa* de ll have a -collegiufe m A com- elect a cap- far, they ‘he council assistant the college At a meeting of ^he athletic council Saturday night termined that we track- team at the meet at Waco in M mittee was appointed \ tain of the team, but, s have chosen no one. ' made R H. Sandif, Student manager of baseball teant.- Last Monday orders for baseball uniforms, gloves, bats, etc., wetU •bnt oat. The team Is expected tp be in uniforms and practicing With the new, outfit by March ist. Qoach Spencer will arri ire on that date and regular practii* will be- . The following men are trying for their respective places on the Wfm: Pitchers—G. A. Smith. Huff, ^vfas, Dabney. Catchers —t Wesseudorf. Hamil ton. W. G. Moore. First .Base— Cornell, DeWare. Bmll. d Base— Black, Hornsby, de done by-successful breeders in this .•*** C,ock " at th# low