The Portland daily press., 1881-02-26
BY TELEGRAPH.
AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.
Report of the Special Investigat-
ing Committee.
THE STATUTES NOT COMPLIED WITH
BY TIE MANAGERS.
Special Despatch to the Press.)


AUGUSTA, Feb. %.
The following is the report on the State Col
lege of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts,
by the Joint Standing Committee on Agri-
culture:
Agreeably to an order of the Legislature,
the Committee on Agriculture visited the State
College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts,
at Orono, on the 9th of January.
Your Committee inspected the buildings and
appurtenances belonging to the College, as
thoroughly as it was possible for them to do at
this unfavorable season of the year, and in the
limited time at their command. AS this visit
was made during the vacation we did not have
the privilege of witnessing the operation of the
school.
The State has provided this institution with
buildings we'll suited to their purposes, includ-
ing dwelling house for the president, nice
farm house and one of the finest and most ex-
pensive barns in the State. There is farm
connected with the college, of 376 acres. The
productions of this large and excellent farm,
excepting the hay crop, are meagre in amount,
and the stock is not such as should be seen
upon model farm. A farmer is employed,
who, with his wife, receive salary Of 5000
per annum and board. There was paid for Ia
Dor on the farm for the year ending November
3d. 1880, twelve hundred and thirty-nine dol
lars. (S1239). Comparing this sum with the
farm productions as given upon page "a of the
report it will be seen, to practical farmers to
be dispropor tomato to the amount received.
The trustees ask for an appropriation for an
additional building for workshops and other
specified items, aggregrtinp twelve thousand
three hundred dollars C2,300), for the year
1881 and 1882.
The trustees solicit these large approp ri
atoms from year to year, and the friends of
the college urge their claims with an earnest
ness approaching demand, upon the ground
that the State is bound by the conditions of
the endowent act of Congress, to foster and
sustain this college.
We have carefully examined the endowent
act of Congress and we find that this claim is
not we'll founded. The State has complied
with all of the provisions of this act and now
Is bound only to keep the moneys derived from
the sale of the lands undiminished and invest
ed in safe stocks yielding not less than five per
centum. But it is further claimed that the
lands donated by Congress were sold below
their value and by this transaction the college
did not realize the full benefit of the grant,
and therefore the State is morally bound to
make up the deficiency Your Committee, re-
alizing the force of this argument have in
vestigated the subject, and have found that
the average pKice at which the lands were sold
by the several States was about eighty cents
per acre. The lands donated to Maine were
sold at an average price of fifty-five and one.
half cents per acre, (551 cts.). We assume
that no just complaint could have been made
if these lands had been sold at the average
price at which the several States sold, namely
eighty cents per acre. Had the 100000 acres
donated to Maine, been sold at this average
price, the amount realized by the college
would have been one hundred and sixty-eight
thousand dollars, (S16S, 00O). The amount act
ually received was one hundred and sixteen
thousand, three hundred and fifty nine dollars,
(S1l6,359), making difference of thrty-six
thousand, one hundred and forty-one dollars,
(56,14I. which amount the State, lit is claimed,
should make good.
The State has appropriated to this institu-
ton, from time to time, one hundred and
eighty-three thousand dollars, ($183OOO), a
sum fifty-three Thousand dollars ($53, OOO) in
excess of the amount realized from the grant
by Congress, reimbursing the college for tho
deficiency claimed as above, and leaving bal
ance to be credited to the liberality of the
State, of one hundred and forty-six thousand
dollars (S146,0OO).
1t is the unanimous opinion of your commit
tee, that this claim has been adjusted, and
that the State should soon be released from
granting aid to this institution.
Your committee find that the Legislature of
1879, enacted the following statute relating to
the State College of Agriculture and the Me-
chanic Arts:
"a reasonable charge shall &c made for tu-
ition, the amount of which shall be determin-
ed from time to time by the trustees, and all
persons employed bv them shall constantly en-
deavor, by the adoption of judicious and eff
fective arrangements in all the labor depart
ments OF the college, to reduce the cost of sub
osceShSo ~ WHO oeuuoutcB duu W Tcuucr III
stitution, as far as possible, self-sustaining.
The provision of this statute, requiring the
trustees to charge tuition, has not been en-
forced, notwithstanding the language of the
law is mandatory. 1t is the opinion of the
committee, that the trustees are at fault in
thus ignoring the plain and emphatic command
of the Legislature.
Your committee hereby recommend that the
appropriation be so limited as to induce the
trustees to enforce this law, or rely, mainly,
Tor support, upon the interest of the endow-
ment fund. and such other resources as may
be provided by the friends of the college,
Your committee, realizing the fact that the
college is now in the middle of its school year.
professors engaged, and arrangements made
for specified time, hereby recommend that
there be appropriated for the use of the COL
lege, for the year 1881:
For instruction. ..........., 81 600
Farm experiments ..................... 200
Apparatus SO. ..........,.. $50
Library ............ 200
repairs OF buildings. ........... 300
Expense of trustees ,.......,..,.. 26O