Agricultural colleges.
In 1857, the late
Justin S. Morrill, then
Chairman of the
Committee on Agriculture of the national House of Representatives, introduced a bill appropriating to the several States a portion of the public lands for the purpose of encouraging institutions for the advancement of agriculture and the mechanic arts.
The bill lingered in Congress (having been vetoed by
President Buchanan) until July, 1862, when it became a law. The act provided that each State should receive a quantity of land equal in value to $30,000 for each of its
Senators and Representatives in Congress under the census of 1860, to establish at least one college in each State where “all the needful sciences for the practical avocations of life” should be taught, and “where agriculture, the foundation of all present and future prosperity, may look for troops of earnest friends studying its familiar and recondite economies.”
It provided that all expenses of location, management, taxation, etc., should be paid by the respective State treasurers, that the entire proceeds of the sales of the land may forever remain undiminished, and that every State receiving the grant must provide an institution within five years from the date of filing its acceptance of the grant.
Every State in the
Union has established one or more of these industrial colleges, with ample equipments, in which persons of both sexes may equally enjoy the benefits of the institution.
Each student is paid a stipulated sum of money for every hour of labor given to the institution; and by this means students are materially aided in defraying the expenses of their education.
In these colleges the mechanic arts and certain branches of the fine arts are studied.
The movement in Congress was undoubtedly suggested by the success of the “Pennsylvania Agricultural College,” established in 1854 by the late
Dr. Evan Pugh.
It was the first institution of the kind established in this country.
At the close of the school year 1898-99, there were in the several States and Territories a total of fifty agricultural and mechanical colleges for white students, and fourteen for the colored race.
The receipts of the year were: From the federal government under the original and subsequent acts of Congress, $1,769,716, from State and Territorial treasuries, $2,570,427; and from other sources, $1,852,873--a total of $6,193,016. There were 2,655 men and 312 women teachers, 26,121 men and 9,337 women students, 4,390 students in the purely agricultural course, and 6,730 students in the four engineering courses.
The expenditures were $4,544,376.
