13 Purdue University

18 Maryland Agricultural College..

List of Agricultural and Mechanical Colleges whose Work cannot be separated from that of the State Universities of which they are Departments. (See Table 49.)

College of Agriculture, Mechanics, Mining, Engineering, and Chemistry (University of California).

Georgia State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (University
of Georgia).

Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College.
College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (University of Minnesota).
Missouri Agricultural and Mechanical College (University of Missouri).
Industrial College of the University of Nebraska.

University of Nevada.

Agricultural and Mechanical College (University of North Carolina).
Ohio State University.

Agricultural and Scientific Department of Brown University.

South Carolina College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts (Uni-
versity of South Carolina).

University of Tennessee and Agricultural and Mechanical College.
University of Vermont and State Agricultural College.
Agricultural Department of West Virginia University.
College of Arts (University of Wisconsin).

The details presented in Tables 52 to 55 make a very full exhibit of the actual work and resources of the land-grant colleges for the current year. They suggest also the varied development of the institutions as determined by locality and resources. The year has, however, been characterized by great activity in respect to many particulars that do not admit of tabular presentation. Information concerning these compiled from reports, catalogues, and other official sources is embodied in the following statements: Cornell University, which has the largest endowment of any of the land-grant colleges, and is one of the five richest foundations in the country, embraces a full classical and scientific curriculum corresponding to that of the arts colleges in general; five technical courses, graduate courses, and two professional schools. The ample endowment and full equipment of this university, the ability of its faculty, and the scholastic standards maintained, justly entitle it to rank among institutions of the highest order.

Place has been given to it in the special tabulation of foundations comprising groups of faculties or schools. It should be observed, however, that while Cornell consists of schools and colleges bearing distinct names and having distinct functions, as the "Sibley College of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanical Arts," "The College of Agricult ure," etc., the students are not matriculated in schools, but are grouped for certain studies, and are under the general direction of a single faculty. To this arrangement the school of law is an exception.

The libraries of the university are three in number: The General University Library, containing 62,000 volumes; the President White Library of History and Political Science, 30.000 volumes, and the Law Library, 4,500 volumes.

The additions to the equipment reported for the present year are seven thousand five hundred dollars from the Hon. Hiram Sibley for Sibley College; eight thousand from Hon. Henry M. Sage, to equip the department of Greek; forty-five thousand from A. S. Barnes, Esq., for Christian Association Hall, and one thousand from Mrs. A. S. Barnes for Shakespeare prize.

LAND-GRANT COLLEGES WHOSE CURRICULA INCLUDE A CLASSICAL COURSE.

Omitting Cornell University, the remaining institutions here considered present a variety of educational schemes, combining general and technical courses in diverse proportions. Six of the number report classical courses leading to the degree of A. B. Among these is the University of Illinois, one of the richest and most highly organized of the land-grant colleges.

Its endowment from the land grant was increased at the first by donations of property by Champaign County valued at above four hundred thousand dollars, and has been further augmented by large appropriations from the State of Illinois.

Successive colleges and schools have been added as required until four colleges, includ ing eleven distinct schools, have been organized.

The present productive fund of the university is exceeded only by that of one other institution in the State, and the value of its property and scientific apparatus by none. Its domain comprises 623 acres, including stock farm, experimental farm, orchards, nurseries, etc. The buildings are fifteen in number, all appropriated to scholastic purposes, as the university makes no provision for boarding and lodging students. Among

noticeable features in the equipment are the art gallery and the museum of industrial art.

The faculty is large and efficient. The proportion of students taking the classical course has always been small; this year it is less than two and a half per cent. of the entire number.

The remaining land-grant colleges reporting an A. B. course are as follows: Arkansas Industrial University, Delaware College, Southwest Georgia and North Georgia Agricultural Colleges, anil the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky.

These colleges, it will be seen, are in the section of the country in which the movement for scientific and technical training is of recent origin. In common, however, with the other land-grant colleges of the same section they have felt the impulse of the movement, and are making provision for courses in theoretic and applied science as rapidly as circumstances permit.

The trustees of Arkansas Industrial University endeavored, from the first, to withstand the prejudices which they encountered against non-classical colleges, and have not ceased to urge upon the State Legislature the need of enlarged appropriations to supply the material appliances for scientific and technical instruction. In 1885 their efforts were seconded by the joint committee of the Legislature; nevertheless that body, as it appears from the report of the trustees for 1886,"limited the appropriations for the two years ending June, 1857, to the estimates submitted for continuing the system of instruction, upon the basis which had been followed substantially from the opening of the institution, namely, the usual curriculum of literary colleges."

In their report for 1886 the trustees say:

"The board, although anxious to take the responsibility and meet the manifest wishes of a majority of the citizens of the State in the matter mentioned, were thus left without adequate means to effect these much desired reforms. However, they determined to make an effort, and in reorganizing the scientific departments prepared courses of instruction that could be practically utilized in the direction sought.

*

"By close calculation they were enabled to divert a portion of the general fund at their command and organized, on a limited scale, a manual training school for boys, which they feel satisfied, as far as it has been developed, fully justifies their efforts in that direction. * *Underlying this department, and as a basis for its future development, a course of free-hand and mechanical drawing was established, and a branch of industrial art for girls connected therewith, and the board feels gratified with the results of this work as lar as the limited experiment has been carried."

The report for the present year states that, "in order further to emphasize the agricultural and mechanical departments, the late Legislature, in what is known as the Barker bill, while making a handsome appropriation to each of these leading departments, ordained that all male beneficiaries should pursue one of these courses, restricted the subjects to be taught to beneficiaries, and fixed the number and character of the professorships. The evident design of the Legislature was to respond to the demands and needs of the State, by creating an agricultural and mechanical institution, with such subsidiary courses as the amount of the appropriation would allow. The present board of trustees and faculty of the institution, aware of the necessitics of the State, and fully in accord with the policy outlined by the Legislature, have done all in their power, in laying out the appropriation and drawing up the courses of study, to meet the wants, both of the great mass of the people of the State, as well as the minority also, in a subsidiary way. We are fully persuaded that the agricultural and mechanical courses here offered and the facilities afforded by the legislative appropriations will enable us to turn out graduates in these departments that will compare favorably with those of any other school, while at the same time, with little or no additional cost to the State, strong classical and normal courses have been laid down."

LAND-GRANT COLLEGES OFFERING ONLY SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL COURSES.

Twenty-one of the colleges included in Table 55 confine their curricula to scientific and technical courses. The law of supply and demand as affecting the practical character of their work is strikingly illustrated by the recent history of the labuma State Agriculture and Mechanical College. Under the impulse communicated by the development of the rich mineral resources of the State and the sudden expansion of mining and engineering interests within its borders. the college has become a "distinctive school of industrial science or polytechnic institute." Its present organization and equipment were fully described in the Commissioner's Report for 1886-87. The building operations, which, as mentioned in that Report, were begun immediately after the disastrous fire of June 24, 1887, have been vigorously prosecuted. The interest manifested in the work makes it certain that appropriations sufficient for its completion upon the present plans will be forthcoming.

SHEFFIELD SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL

Recent events in the history of the Sheffield Scientific School have brought to light some interesting particulars as to the work of the school, and as to the popular demand for the special instruction for which the Congressional grant was designed to make provision.

In his report for 1887, already quoted, President Dwight, referring to these events, says: "As the result of a misapprehension on the part of some persons as to the exact meaning and intention of the Congressional act of 1862, under which the Legislature of the State of Connecticut gave to the Sheffield Scientific School the income of the fund obtained from the sale of the land scrip which fell to the share of this State, a question was brought before the Legislature, at its session in 1886, as to the propriety of continging the payment of this income to the school and the possibility of discontinuing it. After a caretul examination into the whole subject by a committee of the Legislature, which made its report in 1886, and a full hearing of all parties concerned by another committee in 1887, the Legislature adopted, on the 30th of March in the present year, the following resolution:

Resolved by this Assembly, That the act entitled an act appropriating to the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale College the proceeds of land assigned to the State by act of Congress approved July 2d, 1862, passed by the General Assembly of Connecticut at the May session of 1863, and approved June 24, 1863, and the agreement of the President and Fellows of Yale College, executed in accordance with the provisions of said act, together constitute a binding contract inviolably securing to said corporation the income of the fund provided for in said act so long as said corporation shall continue on its part to comply with the terms and conditions of said contract.'"'

This resolution was passed by the Legislature without any dissenting voice and was approved by the Governor of the Commonwealth. It is a matter of gratification to the president and fellows, also to the governing board of the school, that the thorough and careful review of the whole subject by the highest authorities of the State, has thus set aside all temporary misunderstandings of the case, and that the contract between the State and the president and fellows has been realirmed.

From the annual statement of the governing board of the school for 1886, it appears that the sum realized by Connecticut from the sale of its scrip was $135,000. By the terms of the contract between the State and Yale College, devoting to the latter the interest of this fund, gratuitous instruction must be furnished by the school to such a number of students from the State as would expend a sum equal to one-half the interest for the year in paying for their instruction were they charged the regular rates. The school has not only acted up to this requirement, but has generally had on its rolls for gratuitous instruction a larger number of State scholars than the complement. With respect to the class of students who have sought the benefit of the provision, the report of the governing board says: "Neither in the studies related to agriculture or the mechanic arts was there at first any wide-spread demand, apparently, for the instruction furnished. Nor need it be denied that in the case of the former this indifference has largely continued. The same causes which have operated to prevent large numbers from pursuing the scientific study of agriculture in every other State have operated here also. Every careful observer sees what they are; they do not need to be discussed in this place. They will become less and less influential with the progress of time, but it will be long before they cease to exert great influence. The result has most certainly been that the school has had but few students who cared to devote themselves to the special study of the science of agriculture.

"But Connecticut is likewise a great manufacturing State. It was not long before the advantages here presented came to the knowledge of the young men who wished to acquire scientific training in subjects related to the mechanic arts. The number of applicants from this source increased rapidly, and speedily took up every free scholarship to which the State was entitled."

A subject of special interest has recently been pressed upon the attention of the gov erning board; namely, "The addition of a fourth year to the course of study, so as to make the course required for the attainment of the degree of bachelor of philosophy cover the perio of four years instead of three, as at present." With respect to this proposition, President Dwight observes: "It would place the degree of bachelor of philosophy, in respect to the matter of time, in the same position as that of bachelor of arts." It is felt by many of the wisest and most thoughtful men in the university, both in the school itself and outside of it, that this addition of a fourth year would be a very desirable addition. A large proportion of the graduates of the school also, as it is believed, are disposed to hope for the addition, and to favor it as soon as the funds at command may render it practicable. After very careful consideration of the subject however, it is the opinion of the director of the school and of his associates in the governing board-an opinion in which the president concurs-that, in order to a successful meeting of the