The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1870-09-09
THE STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

Kansas has reason 10 De pr0uQ OF her
schools. Her system compares favora-
bly, with that OF. Massachusetts and
Michigan, and its development promises
ages, with the successes and failures of
others as our guide. Lawrence is just
ly proud of the rising star of the State
University. The graduates of Emporia
are eagerly sought by well-informed
school directors, and her sister, the
younger Normal, is just rising, like We
nus from the sea, clad with all attract
iveness.
But the oldest, the most richly en-
dowed, and, perhaps, as yet, the most
fully developed of our State institutions,
is the Farmers College, at Manhattan.
Begun in 1868, it has steadily kept
pace with the development of the State,
Struggling, up to the present year, for
lack of funds, and having been carried,
during many dark hours, only by great
self-sacrifice on the part of its able and
devoted faculty, it has enrolled, during
the past academic year, 173 students, of
whom thirty-two are in the college
classes proper. Twenty-Five counties
of the State, and six States besides Kan
sas, were represented in the institution,
and the first class in Military Science
was graduated.
Forty-three thousand one hundred
and forty-siX acres of the endowment
lands have been sold, for S1S0,979, from
which the income this year is about
$4,000, and the enhanced value of the
remaining lands raises the prospective
endowment to over half million dol
lars, every cent of which is pledged as
a perpetual investment for the free edu-
cation of the masses. This is emphat-
ically the peoples school, where the in
dustrial classes may train their children
for the activities of life, ''without mon
ey and without price" Many of the
students, both ladies and gentlemen, are
supporting themselves as they climb up
the hill of science. And delighted
crowds assemble to witness the perfec-
ton of drill, and the accuracy and rap
idity of statement at the searching eX-
aminations and yet, this is but the day
of small things. AS an incidental mat
ter, ninety-fiVe teachers have gone forth
from its halls to instruct in the schools
of the State; but in the not far future,
hundreds of scientific and successful
farmers will point with laudable pride
to the Agricultural College as their al
ma mater
We believe the interests of this valu-
able institution are in good hands. The
board of regents are an able and earnest
body of men, several of whom are not
unfamiliar with the plOw, and we are
glad to know that they are maturing
plans for the practical development of
the college. 1t is pity that their hands
are so tied by lack of means to properly
open farm and laboratory. The State
of Michigan with half the number of
students in her Agricultural College,
gives it $4,000 this year and $4,000
next year, for buildings and improve
ments.
Kansas employed an agricultural pro-
fessor last year, at q salary of $500,
and, although he had neither barn, nor
team, nor tools, granted him $500 with
which to open up and run the State
farm. This year he has only 5000 to
| use on the farm.
Our readers will understand that the
endowment of this institution is strictly
confined, by legislative enactment, to
pay for teaching; not even hoe or a
broom can be bought with it.; and the
$4,000 granted, last March, by the Leg
| islature, can only be realized out of the
surplus income after all teaching bills
have been paid. Although thus restrict
ed, the development of the farm is pro-
crossing, and number of experiments
are in process of trial. The city of
Manhattan has given to the regents the
city park, forty-five acres of choice Sec
ond bottom, for an experimental farm,
and probably another yeaI will witness
decided advance in the industrial de-
velopment of the college. Meantime,
the academic year of 1S70-1 opens
September Sth. The regents have pur-
chased the boarding house, and are
thoroughly refitting it. Rooms in it
will be free, and board at the low rate
of 1926 per week.
When the best of instruction is thus
furnished free, with rooms thrown IN,
and board at cost, parents are culpable
who allow their children to grow up in
| ignorance Journal.