250 REPOKT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. 



The fiftieth anniversary of the passage of the act incorporating the 

 Maryland Agricultural College was celebrated with appropriate exer- 

 cises March 6, 1906. Addresses were given by President R. W. 

 Silvester; President Ira Remsen, of Johns Hopkins University; 

 Dean L. H. Bailey, of Cornell University College of Agriculture; 

 Secretary 'of Agriculture James Wilson; and Prof. F.. A. Soper, an 

 alumnus of the college. 



The act of incorporation of the Maryland Agricultural College was 

 dated March 6, 1856, the corner stone of the main college buildhig 

 was laid August 24, 1858, and the institution was opened for students 

 in September, 1859. The Michigan Agricultural College was pro- 

 vided for in the State constitution of 1850, created by act of the State 

 legislature in 1855, and opened to students May 13, 1857. "To 

 Michigan, therefore, belongs the honor of having been the first of the 

 States to put in actual operation an educational institution for the 

 direct promotion of technical training in agriculture." ^ The Michi- 

 gan Agricultural College will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of its 

 opening by appropriate exercises May 28-31, 1907. 



In 1906 agricultural colleges were in operation in all the States and 

 Territories, except Alaska, Hawaii, and Porto Rico. In the Southern 

 States separate colleges are maintained for negroes, and in this way 

 the total number of agricultural colleges in the United States is 63. 

 The number of white students in four-year agricultural courses in 1906 

 was 2,911, and in shorter courses, 4,764; of negro students, 1,798 

 were enrolled in agricultural courses. 



APPROPRIATIONS. 



Several large State appropriations for buildings and current 

 expenses of the colleges were granted during the year. The Univer- 

 sity of Georgia was given $100,000 for the purpose of erecting and 

 equipping buildings for the agricultural college, and through the 

 efforts of the alumni of the institution a farm of about 800 acres, 

 valued at about .$100,000, has been acquired adjacent to the campus. 



In Ohio the legislature appropriated a total of $135,000 for the 

 college of agriculture— $45,000 for land, $80,000 for buildings, and 

 $10,000 for the purchase of live stock. The $80,000 for buildings 

 will be used for a judging pavilion, a cattle barn, and a horse barn, all 

 as separate structures. 



In Iowa the legislature extended for a period of five years the one- 

 fifth mill tax levied in favor of the college of agriculture. This will 

 provide about $125,000 a year for buildings. About $175,000 

 remains from the present millage tax, which will be applied on the 



aU. S. Dt'pt. A>;r., Yearbook 1894, p. 91. 



