SUPPLEMENT TO FINANCIAL STATEMENT. 15 



Permit mc to suggest in connection with this statement of the general 

 financial condition of the College, that there being no provision for its expenses 

 after the first of January, 18?!» (except the interest from the land grant fund, 

 none of which will be available for that year till April 1st), until an appropria- 

 tion is made by your Honorable Body, it is exceedingly desirable either that 

 the appropriation for the College should be passed as early in the session as 

 possible, or that a law should be enacted allowing the College to draw from the 

 State Treasury for its current expenses at the same rate as provided for the two 

 previous years until the appropriation is made. 



In the accounts of tlic Farm Department as presented in this report, the 

 excess of the debits over the credits is much larger than in former years, but it 

 should be noticed also in connection with this tliat the cash receipts are consid- 

 erably in excess of the actual cash disbursements. 



The chief causes of the heavy balance against the Farm Department are : 

 1st, The depreciation of property represented in the inventory, — specially 

 heavy in the one item of blooded stock ; 2d, The unusually large amount 

 charsced to the farm on account of students' labor, occasioned bv the increased 

 number of students. 



With regard to the former, the depreciation in the value of blooded stock 

 and in nearly all kinds of farm produce has been fully recognized in the taking 

 of inventory. The result is that although there is really more stock on the 

 farm and more })roduce on hand than there was a year ago, and important 

 improvements have been made with the special appropriation to the Farm 

 Department, still the department is charged with 11,976.82 decrease of inven- 

 tory. 



The labor of students is a very important feature of the Agricultural Col- 

 lege, both for its moral and educational influence, and also as a means of ena- 

 bling young men of limited resources to obtain an education. But it is impos- 

 sible to make it remunerative to the Institution. It is confessedly educational. 

 It requires more supervision than ordinary labor, and so large a number of 

 hands working three hours each day cannot be so profitably managed as a cor- 

 respondingly smaller number working the whole day. These facts should be 

 taken into consideration in connection with the cost of the industrial depart- 

 ments of the College. 



The above remarks in regard to inventory and students' labor, except in rela- 

 tion to blooded stock are as applicable to the Horticultural as to the Farm 

 Department. 



COLLEGE LANDS. 



An Act of Congress, approved July 2, 18G2, donated to each State public 

 lauds to the amount of 30,000 acres for each of its Senators and llepreseuta- 

 tives in Congress, according to the census of 1860, and the "endowment, sup- 

 port, and maintenance of at least one college, where the leading object shall 

 be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including mili- 

 tary tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and 

 the mechanic arts." 



The Legislature accepted this grant, and bestowed it upon the Agricultural 

 College. By its provisions the College has received 235,673.37 acres of land. 

 The sale of these lands is under the direction of the Agricultural Land Grant 

 Board, consisting of the Governor, Auditor General, Secretary of State, State 

 Treasurer, Attorney General, and Commissioner of the State Laud Office. 



