COLLEGES, Land Grant, colleges estab lished and maintained in whole or in part by the Land Grant Act of 2 July 1862. Justin S. Morrill, a representative from Vermont, intro duced in Congress the first bill asking that grants of government land be donated for the purpose of aiding in the education of the ple, in scientific and technical subjects. VI; bill, introduced in the lower House 14 Dec. 1857, authorized the establishment of colleges of agri culture and mechanical arts in all States, and provided for the support of said colleges, 20,000 acres of land for each senator and representa tive. The bill passed both Houses but was vetoed by President Buchanan. In December 1861 Mr. Morrill introduced a new bill, bestow ing 30,000 acres of land for each member of Congress for the establishment and maintenance of industrial colleges. Ben Wade, of Ohio, introduced the bill in the Senate. The House committee on public lands made an adverse re port, but the bill passed both Houses and was approved by President Lincoln 2 July 1862. This act gave to the cause of industrial educa tion 30,000 acres of land for each senator and representative in Congress to which the States were entitled by apportionment of the census of 1860, or in all, about 13,000000 acres of land for educational purposes. The act was entitled °An act donating public lands to the several States and Territories who may provide col leges for the benefit of agriculture and mechani cal arts? The object of the act is expressed as follows: aThe endowment, support and maintenance of at least one college where the leading ob jects 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 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 indus trial classes in the several pursuits and pro fessions of life? In 1889 Mr. Morrill and others began to form plans to secure another appropriation, and Mr. Morrill introduced another bill in Congress, providing that there shall be appropriated an nually to each State, out of the funds arising from the sale of public lands, the sum of $15,000 for the year ending 30 June 1890, and an annual increase by the additional sum of $1,000 to such appropriation for 10 years thereafter until the appropriation shall become $25,000, at which figure it shall remain fixed. The bill passed
both Houses and was approved by President Harrison 30 Aug. 1890. The act says that this appropriation shall be applied °only to instruc tion in agriculture, the mechanic arts, the Eng lish language, and the various branches of mathematical, physical, natural and economic science, with special reference to their applica tions to the industries of life, and to the facili ties for such instruction.x' Provision was made at this time for separate institutions for white and colored students in such States as desired to make this arrangement.
The Act of 4 March 1907 amended the Act of 1890 by increasing the yearly appropriation and extending the conditions for its use. The benefits of the Act of 1862 or of later acts in lieu of it are received by 48 States, and 53 in stitutions are thereby aided— one in each, of 43 States, two in Massachusetts and Missouri and one colored and one white institution in Missis sippi, South Carolina and Virginia each. The appropriation is now fixed at $50,000 to each of the 48 States and the two insular possessions, i Hawaii and Porto Rico, and aids 69 institutions; 17 States maintain special colleges for colored students, which receive aid from this fund.
The reports for the year ending 30 June 1914 received by the commissioner of education from the presidents of the land grant colleges show• that the States have received 10,931,267 acres of land, of which 910,586 acres remain i unsold. The invested funds from the sale of the land and other sources of revenue give their schools and colleges a total annual income of approximately $38,559,397.
The total number of students in the agricul tural and mechanical departments was 115,054. For information in detail about each land grant college, consult of Commissioner of Education> (Vol. II, Washington 1915).