520 



technic institutes iu the several counties of the States and Territories, 

 and the District of Columbia." The passage of this bill will be urged 

 at this session. Section 1 appropriates $5,000,000 to aid in the estab- 

 lishment of such institutes in every county or school-district at or near 

 the capital town thereof. Section 2 requires the Commissioner of Edu- 

 cation, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, to apportion 

 ©ne-half of the $5,000,000 upon the basis of the entire population, and 

 behalf in proportion to the number above ten years unable to write, 

 as stated by the late decennial census. Section 3 awards a share in the 

 apportionment to each State, Territory, or the District of Columbia, 

 which shall by law provide for the establishment of such institutes, 

 open to all actual residents, under reasonable and just regulations, in 

 which instruction shall be given in such branches as " foster agri- 

 culture and manufactures, develop mining resources, and benefit com- 

 merce," under regulations devised by the Commissioner of Educa- 

 tion, the Commissioner of Agriculture, and the Chief Signal-Officer. 

 Section 4 makes each apportionment payable upon the warrant of the 

 Commissioner of Education, countersigned by the Secretary of the In- 

 terior, to the State, territorial, or district officer authorized by law to 

 receive it. Such officers are required to report to the Commissioner of 

 Education, on or before the 30th of June next ensuing, a detailed state- 

 ment of the moneys disbursed or still unexpended. The term " school- 

 districts " includes cities, towns, parishes, or other subdivisions desig- 

 nated by law as competent to maintain institutions of learning. Section 

 5 requires the immediate apportionment and disbursement of each State, 

 territorial, or district share ; the portion derived from each half of the 

 entire appropriation is to be locally distributed upon its own basis of 

 distribution. Section 6 makes the embezzlement of these funds a fel- 

 ony punishable with a fine of double the amount embezzled, or impris- 

 onment not exceediog three years. Section 7 gives the exclusive juris- 

 diction iu such cases to the United States circuit courts, with power to 

 compel by writ the performance of the duties specified, or to restrain 

 their undue performance. Section 8 appropriates the $5,000,000. 



Agricultural education. — At a meeting of the Highland and 

 Agricultural Society of Scotland, held in June last, it was resolved to 

 memorialize the government in behalf of agricultural education. Among 

 other reasons for affording the working-classes of the country special 

 instruction in the sciences bearing on agriculture, and their practical 

 application, it was urged : 



That in times past crops were raised and stock reared by the operation of very sim- 

 ple and primitive processes. In the present age the implements required by farmers 

 depend on iugenions and complicated mechanical contrivances. Not only for the con- 

 struction, but for the management and working of these implements, a knowledge of 

 mechanics is required. The fertility of the soil needs to be stimulated by artificial 

 compounds, which must be prepared with special reference to the nature both of soils 

 and crops. The stock bred and fed on farms must obtain particular treatment, so as 

 to insure production of good meat in a short time and at small expense. All these 

 processes depend more or less on a knowledge of mechanics, chemistry, and physiol- 

 ogy. The most important recent improvements in agriculture have been made by per- 

 sons versed in these sciences. 



That with this view, your memorialists ask that the grants of the department shall 

 be declared to cover instruction in chemistry, mechanics, physiology, botany, morphol- 

 ogy, steam, and other scientific subjects, when taught in the abstract, in so far as nec- 

 essary for agriculture ; and also to cover instruction given iu the principles of agricul- 

 ture as an applied science, and to place it in the same position as machine construction, 

 applied mechanics, the principles of mining, and navigation, which are already 

 included iu the list of scientific arts toward instruction in which aid is given, and in 

 which examinations are carried out by the department. 



The society have since received a reply to their petition from " the 

 lords of the committee of council on education," iu which it is stated 



