Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1875-03-19
The Agricultural Colleges.

The Committee on Education and Labor
Of the National House of Representatives
WAS instructed in February, 1874, to inquire
into the condition and management OF the
Agricultural Colleges in the several States
and their report, signed by Messrs. Monroe
George F. Hoar, Storm, Whitehead, and
Others, has been published. From an alb
stract of the document, Published IN the
New York ErsRiag Posi-, we gather some
interesting facts.
The committee directed their inquiries to
two lines of Information the use which the
States had made of the money obtained from
the sale Of the lands granted by Congress IN
1852. and the results Of such use. y wide
difference wsS noticeable in the first place in
rl,r amount realized from the land grants
Rb.d. Island. for instance, obtaining only
Ala cents PER acre for its land, while Min
nesota realized S5.G2 per acre on a part OF
it, land. \ variety of reasons are assigned
Fl. explain this wide variation Of values 4; the
difference bein. due in 2 large number OF
cl,s> to inismauagemcut Such States as
were able to select public hands within their
own boundaries were able to select better
lands and could arrange better terms with
the buvers. Those States which accepted
the gran; earliest received least for their
land because there was no well regulated
system for the sale Of it. ana much of it
raised int, the hands Of spectators instead
Of actual -ettltr-. Ia most Of the States the
money Obtained Wa invested satisfactorily,
some Of the States placing tie money IN
United StAte- bonds. and some in their own
safe bonds. The latter course has entail
ed serious los in some of the Southern
State. Ia two States ,hc funds have been
s,aandered-North and South Carolina.
The former State placed the funds in securi-
ties which are low substantially valueless
aud the latter State put the money into It's
own bonds at o. Yer cent, which bonds
never Welded any income, and finally di-aE-
peared altogether in some way not &c
counted for. The committee maintain that
the States can he held responsible for such
mislnansgement OF their agents.
In estimating the results accomplished By
these laud grants the committee have to
meet the difficulty 81 Distinguishing "be-
tween resalt~ achieved by older institution
of which the college endowed by the land
grant now form : department, and results
obtained by those colleges themselves.
The, find na cause for encouragement,
however The number of pupils nov at
tending thee schools j. between three and
four thousand, and they have furnished
more than sixteen Hundred GRADUATES to the
active occupations lite The cost of clucat-
inr the -t.l,u;- as ;hr~c colleges varies
from $40 each ~ aunum in Kentucky to
S2g3. =. in Penn, i,aniA the average
beins l5,at Sis = In regard to race
DETERMINATIONS. tlc r,tdua- show that nj
fifteen of thc-e institutions coi1rel students
would te admitted. That at niue, none have
auplied. Al iNo. ttcy would not be ADM;
TED. he,au-r laa,4-.in ta, been made for
them ELSEWHERE. "a, ta'. there are No recu-
lt,ian, FIR ;hrir ,x-ll~ila; and at one the
terms of admission have not been settled