Institutions designated as beneficiaries of Congressional endowment acts. In Montana no college meeting the requirements of the acts of Congress has as yet been established; in Rhode Island litigation has arisen as to the beneficiary; in South Carolina there is a controversy respecting the division of the fund between the races. LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES RELATING TO COLLEGES OF AGRICULTURE AND THE MECHANIC ARTS AND TO AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS. In 1862 the first act of Congress providing for the endowment of colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts was approved by the President and became a law. This act is popularly referred to as "The first Morrill act," in honor of Senator Justin S. Morrill, of Vermont, who assisted in its preparation and presented the bill in Congress, or simply as the "Land-grant act of 1862." As the latter name implies, it provides for the donation to the several States of certain public lands of the United States in place or scrip-30,000 acres for each Senator and Representative in Congress to which they were respectively entitled under the census of 1860-the proceeds from the sale of which, invested in stocks yielding not less than 5 per cent interest, were to form permanent endowment funds for the support and maintenance of colleges of agricul ture and the mechanic arts, under certain conditions set forth in the act. The act reads as follows: THE LAND GRANT ACT OF '62.-THE FIRST MORRILL ACT." AN ACT donating public lands to the several States and Territories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That there be granted to the several States, for the purposes hereinafter mentioned, an amount of public land, to be apportioned to each State, a quantity equal to 30,000 acres for each Senator and Representative in Congress to which the States are respectively entitled by the apportionment under the census of 1860: Provided, That no mineral lands shall be selected or purchased under the provisions of this act. SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the land aforesaid, after being surveyed, shall be apportioned to the several States in sections or subdivisions of sections, not less than one-quarter of a section; and wherever there are public lands in a State, subject to sale at private entry at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, the quantity to which said State shall be entitled shall be selected from such lands, within the limits of such State; and the Secretary of the Interior is hereby directed to issue to each of the States, in which there is not the quantity of public lands subject to sale at private entry, at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, to which said State may be entitled under the provisions of this act, land scrip to the amount in acres for the deficiency of its distributive share; said scrip to be sold by said States, and the proceeds thereof applied to the uses and purposes prescribed in this act, and for no other use or purpose whatsoever: Provided, That in no case shall any State to which land serip may thus be issued, be allowed to locate the same within the limits of any other State, or of any territory of the United States; but their assignees may thus locate said land scrip upon any of the unappropriated lands of the United States subject to sale at private entry, at one dollar and twenty-five cents, or less, an acre: And provided further, That not more than one million acres shall be located by such assignees in any one of the States: And provided further, That no such location shall be made before one year from the passage of this act. SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That all the expenses of management, superintendence and taxes from date of selection of said lands, previous to their sales, and all expenses incurred in the management and disbursement of moneys which may be received therefrom, shall be paid by the States to which they may belong, out of the Treasury of said States, so that the entire proceeds of the sale of said lands shall be applied, without any diminution whatever, to the purposes hereinafter mentioned. SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That all moneys derived from the sale of the lands aforesaid, by the States to which the lands are apportioned, and from the sales of land scrip herein before provided for, shall be invested in stocks of the United States, or of the States, or some other safe stocks, yielding not less than five per centum upon the par value of said stocks; and that the moneys so invested shall constitute a perpetual fund, the capital of which shall remain forever undiminished, except so far as may be provided in section fifth of this act, and the interest of which shall be inviolably appropriated, by each State, which may take and claim the benefit of this act, to the endowment, support, and maintenance of, at least, one college, where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner as the Legislatures of the States may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life. SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That the grant of land and land scrip hereby authorized shall be made on the following conditions, to which, as well as to the provisions hereinbefore contained, the previous assent of the several States shall be signified by legislative acts: First, If any portion of the fund invested, as provided by the foregoing section, or any portion of the interest thereon, shall, by any action or contingency, be diminished or lost, it shall be replaced by the State to which it belongs, so that the capital of the fund shall remain forever undiminished; and the annual interest shall be regularly applied without diminution to the purposes mentioned in the fourth section of this act, except that a sum, not exceeding ten per centum upon the amount received by any State under the provisions of this act, may be expended for the purchase of lands for sites or experimental farms whenever authorized by the respective Legislatures of said States; Second, No portion of said fund, nor the interest thereon, shall be applied, directly or indirectly, under any pretense whatever, to the purchase, crection, preservation or repair, of any building or buildings; Third, Any State which may take and claim the benefit of the provisions of this act shall provide, within five years, at least not less than one college, as prescribed in the fourth section of this act, or the grant to such State shall cease; and said State shall be bound to pay the United States the amount received of any lands previously sold, and that the title to purchasers under the State shall be valid; Fourth, An annual report shall be made regarding the progress of each college, recording any improvements and experiments made, with their costs and results, and such other matters including State industrial and economical statistics, as may be supposed useful; one copy of which shall be transmitted by mail free, by each, to all the other colleges which may be endowed under the provisions of this act, and also one copy to the Secretary of the Interior; Fifth, When lands shall be selected from those which have been raised to double the minimum price in consequence of railroad grants, they shall be computed to the States at the maximum price, and the number of acres proportionally diminished; Sixth, No State, while in a condition of rebellion or insurrection against the government of the United States, shall be entitled to the benefit of this act; Seventh, No State shall be entitled to the benefits of this act, unless it shall express its acceptance thereof by its Legislature within two years from the date of its approval by the President.* SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That land scrip issued under the provisions of this act shall not be subject to location until after the first day of January, 1863. SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That land officers shall receive the same fees for locating land scrip issued under the provisions of this act as is now allowed for the location of military bounty land warrants under existing laws; Provided, That maximum compensation shall not be thereby increased. SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That the Governors of the several States to which scrip shall be issued under this act shall be required to report annually to Congress all sales made of such scrip until the whole shall be disposed of, the amount received for the same, and what appropriation has been made of the proceeds. Approved July 2, 1862. In 1887 the act known as the "Hatch experiment station act," so called in honor of Representative Wm. H. Hatch, of Missouri, was approved, and by the Fiftieth and Fifty-first Congresses supplementary provisions were added thereto. The following is the text of the act and of the regulations for franking bulletins and reports: THE HATCH EXPERIMENT STATION ACT. [Forty-ninth Congress, Session 2, Chapter 314, March 2, 1887.] AN ACT to establish agricultural experiment stations in connection with the colleges established in the several States under the provisions of an act approved July second, eighteen hundred and sixtytwo, and of the acts supplementary thereto. SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That in order to aid in acquiring and diffusing among the people of the United States useful and practical information on subjects connected with agriculture, and to promote scientific investigation and experiment respecting the principles and applications of agricultural science, there shall be established, under direction of the college or colleges, or agricultural department of colleges, in each State or Territory established, or which may hereafter be established in accordance with the provisions of an act approved July second, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, entitled "An act donating public lands to the several states and territories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts," or any of the supplements of said act, a department to be known and designated as an "agricultural experiment station:" Provided, That in any State or Territory in which two such colleges have been or may be so established, the appropriation hereinafter made to such State or Territory shall be equally divided between such colleges, unless the legislature of such state or territory shall otherwise direct. SEC. 2. That it shall be the object and duty of said experiment stations to conduct original researches or verify the experiments on the physiology of plants and animals; the diseases to which they are severally subject, with the remedies for the same; the chemical composition of useful plants at their different stages of growth; the comparative advantages of rotative cropping as pursued under a varying series of crops; the capacity of new plants or trees for acclimation; the analysis of soils and water; the chemical composition of manures, natural or artificial, with experiments designed to test their comparative effects on crops of different kinds; the adaptation and value of grasses and forage plants; the composition and digestibility of the different kinds of food for domestic animals; the scientific and economic questions involved in the production of butter and cheese; and such other researches or experiments bearing directly on the agricultural industry of the Unite States as may in each case be deemed advisable, having due regard to the varying conditions and needs of the respective state or territories. SEC. 3. That in order to secure as far as practicable uniformity of methods and results in the work of said stations it shall be the duty of the United States commissioner of agriculture to furnish forms, as far as practicable, for the tabulation of results of investigation or experiments; to indicate, from time to time, such lines of inquiry as to him shall seem most important; and in general, to furnish such advice and assistance as will best promote the purposes of this act. It shall be the duty of each of said stations annually, on or before the first day of February, to make to the governor of the state or territory in which it is located, a full and detailed report of its operations, including a statement of receipts and expenditures, a copy of which report shall be sent to each of said stations, to the said commissioner of agriculture, and to the secretary of the treasury of the United States. SEC. 4. That bulletins or reports of progress shall be published at said stations at least once in three months, one copy of which shall be sent to each newspaper in the States and territories in which they are respectively located, and to such individuals actually engaged in farming as may request the same, and as far as the means of the station will permit. Such bulletins or reports, and the annual reports of said stations, shall be transmitted in the mails of the United States free of charge for postage, under such regulations as the postmaster general may from time to time prescribe. SEC. 5. That for the purpose of paying the necessary expenses of conducting investigations and experiments, and printing and distributing the results as hereinbefore prescribed, the sum of $15,000 is hereby appropriated to each State to be specially provided for by Congress in the appropriations from year to year, and to each territory entitled under the provisions of section eight of this act, out of any money in the treasury proceeding from the sales of public lands, to be paid in equal quarterly payments on the first day of January, April, July and October in each year, to the treasurer or other officer duly appointed by the governing boards of said colleges to receive the same, the first payment to be made on the first day of October, 1887: Provided, however, That out of the first annual appropriation so received by any station an amonnt not exceeding one-fifth may be expended in the erection, enlargement or repair of a building or buildings necessary for carrying on the work of such station; and thereafter an amount not exceeding five per centum of such annual appropriation may be so expended. SEC. 6. That whenever it shall appear to the secretary of the treasury from the annual statement of receipts and expenditures of any of said stations, that a portion of the preceding annual appropriation remains unexpended, such amount shall be deducted from the next succeeding annual appropriation to such station, in order that the amount of money appropriated to any station shall not exceed the amount actually and necessarily required for its maintenance and support. SEC. 7. That nothing in this act shall be construed to impair or modify the legal relation existing between any of the said colleges and the government of the States or Territories in which they are respectively located. SEC. 8. That in States having colleges entitled under this section to the benefits of this act, and having also agricultural experiment stations established by law separate from said colleges, such States shall be authorized to apply such benefits to experiment stations so established by such States; and in case any State shall have established, under the provisions of said act of July second, aforesaid, an agricultural department or experimental station in connection with any university, college or institution not distinctively an agricultural college or school, and such State shall have established, or shall hereafter establish a separate agricultural college or school, which shall have connected therewith an experimental farm or station, the Legislature of such State may apply in whole or in part the appropriation by this act made to such separate agricultural college or school; and no Legislature shall, by contract express or implied, disable itself from so doing. |