rate of interest to be not less than 5 per cent, and the annual income was to be devoted to the support and maintenance of at least one college in a State, "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 order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of life." This law, commonly known as "the Agricultural College act," was accepted on the part of Maryland, by an act of the general assembly of 1864, which provided for the sale of the land scrip and the investment of the proceeds. By a subsequent act, chapter 178 of the Laws of 1865, the comptroller was directed to pay over the annual income of this land. scrip fund, "without diminution," to the Maryland Agricultural Col lege. And this institution was required to conform to the conditions of the Congressional grant. Maryland's share in the land scrip amounted to 210,000 acres, which were sold for 53 cents an acre on the average, and thus yielded a net sum of $112,504. In 1866 the State assumed the debt of the college to the amount of $45,000. It was then made a joint owner with the old corporation in the college. When the State granted the land scrip to the college, 10 per cent or $11,250.40 was "reserved to be paid into the treasury, of the State, to reimburse the said State, in part, for the amount appropriated ** to the Maryland Agricultural College." This left a fund of about $101,000, which yielded an income of $6,075 in 1868, of $6,975 in 1882, and of $9,071.15 in 1889.1 Nearly all the income of the institution, thus derived from the State and national endowments, was specifically assigned to the support of a college, or purposes of instruction, and mainly for teaching the young. Research or investigation is but indirectly referred to in the landgrant act. In common with like institutions in other States, the Maryland Agricultural College has always been in such straitened circumstances as to prevent any considerable allowances for the purpose of vestigating agricultural problems. For several years the friends of agricultural science discussed the plan of supplementing the act of 1862 by grants from the national Treasury for the sole purpose of conducting experiments and scientific research in aid of agriculture. The subject was presented, in different forms, to the Forty-seventh, Forty-eighth, and Forty-ninth Congresses. In the latter a bill, largely prepared by early advocates of the project, was introduced by Hon. W. H. Hatch, of Missouri, chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, and under his able leadership it was carried through the lower branch. In the Senate the bill was materially amended, and, as finally passed, it was known commonly as "The Hatch Act," approved March 2, 1887. This law is entitled "An act to establish agricultural experiment Blackmar, Federal and State Aid to Higher Education, p. 190. stations in connection with the colleges established in the several States, under the provisions of an act approved July 2, 1862," and its purpose, as stated in the opening section, is "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." The work of the agricultural experiment station is defined by the second section of the act, which follows: SEC. 2. That it shall be the object and duty of said experiment stations to conduct original researches or verify 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 waters; 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 United States as may in each case be deemed advisable, having due regard to the varying conditions and needs of the respective States or Territories. In addition to this, the information is to be diffused by printing and distributing the results of the investigations, and for all these purposes $15,000 is appropriated yearly to each State and Territory. An additional act was passed at the next session of Congress and the first appropriation was made for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1888. "It then became necessary for the Maryland legislature formally to assent to and accept the grant and designate the institution to which it should be applied." This was done on March 6, 1888,' and the Maryland Agricultural College was designated to receive Maryland's share of the appropriation. On March 9, 1888, the trustees of the college accepted this designation and established the Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station. The very first land put in order for station uses was that upon which experiments were instituted when the property came into possession of the college thirty years ago. The station offices and workrooms are in the fine old brick structure, erected almost a century ago, and which was the only building of consequence upon the "Rossburg" estate when purchased for the "model" and experiment farm of Maryland in 1858. The subjects which receive attention at the station, as far as circumstances permit, are divided into four classes or groups, relating to soils, plants, animals, and climates. Annual reports, quarterly bulletins, and special bulletins are issued, giving an account of the work done at the station, and these are sent free on application. Laws of Maryland, Statute of 1888, ch. 55. A library has been collected, a laboratory equipped, and various valuable experiments have been carried out. Several quarterly bulletins and annual reports have been issued up to date, and they furnish a valuable store of information for the farmer. The board of trustees of the college itself was originally composed of the governor of Maryland, the heads of the two houses of legislature, the attorney-general, comptroller of the treasury, State treasurer, the U. S. Commissioner of Agriculture, and five representatives of the stockholders. To these were added in 1888 "one person from each of the Congressional districts of the State, who shall be a practical farmer or immediately interested in agricultural pursuits, who shall be appointed by the governor, by and with the consent of the senate, for the term of six years.” 1 In accordance with its charter and from its establishment, the college annually received $6,000 from the State up to October 1, 1883. Then for five years the appropriation was withdrawn, and as a consequence the college became in debt and rapidly ran down. On March 9, 1888, Maj. Henry E. Alvord, c. E., then professor of agriculture at the Massachusetts Agricultural College, was made president of the college and director of the experiment station. He entered upon his duties on April 1, and under his efficient management the institution prospered and more than regained lost ground. In the summer of 1892 he was succeeded by R. W. Silvester, the present president. The faculty now numbers 13 members. The college has recently joined with the Johns Hopkins University and the U.S. Geological Survey in the preparation of a geological and topographical map of Maryland, and in connection with the Weather Bureau of the U. S. Department of Agriculture and the Johns Hopkins University estab lished the Maryland State weather service, which publishes regular monthly bulletins. In 18902 the duty of inspecting commercial fertil izers sold in the State and periodically publishing the results of the examinations was given to the college. On June 30, 1888, the college was in debt for $19,676.45. Creditors were clamorous and the college property was actually advertised at sheriff's sale. A course of rigid economy, however, not only tided over present dangers, but enabled the trustees to report on August 31, 1889, that the debt was diminished to $13,500, a reduction of 31 per cent. On December 31, 1891, President Alvord reported the debt was only $5,000. The buildings of the college include the main college of brick, a detached brick structure used as a chemical laboratory, a frame gymnasium, the president's dwelling, a set of cheap and plain frame farm and storage buildings, a small foreman's cottage, and "Rossburg," which is used for the experiment station. The main building stands in the midst of a fine grove of forest trees, and is six stories high, 120 feet long, and 54 feet wide. It is in a good 'Laws of Maryland, act of 1888, ch. 326. |