336 ANNUAL REPOKT. 



the door for the free education of her children. Minnesota be- 

 lieves that the common school lies at the base of the problem of 

 self-government. The remarkable and unrivaled exhibit of her 

 school system now before you attest their high character and ex- 

 cellence. At the beginning the munificence of the national gov- 

 ernment equipped the State with a dowry of lands princely in 

 extent. The sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections in each town- 

 ship are devoted to this purpose. It gives us a grand total of 

 3,000,000 acres, an area equal in extent to the State of Con- 

 necticut. 



This grant has been husbanded with tender care. The perma- 

 nent school fund already amounts to $6,500,000, and in the future 

 will fully realize $20,000,000. Besides the income from this fund 

 we raise annually about $2,500,000. The State has 223,209 en- 

 rolled pupils. There are 4,671 school houses, 4,802 common 

 schools, with 6,086 teachers. These teachers were mostly edu- 

 cated in our normal schools, of which the State has three, with a 

 present attendance of 1,375 pupils. As part of the common 

 school system we have 250 graded schools, of which sixty have 

 high school departments, in as many cities and towns, in which 

 students are fitted for the university. The kindergarten system 

 is in operation in all our leading cities. The eighteen public 

 school buildings of St. Paul and the twenty -three of MinneaiDolis, 

 costing from $25,000 to $75,000, unique in their architecture, 

 complete in their equipments, thorough in the systems and 

 methods there in use, and with their 22, 175 attending pupils, are 

 probably without a rival in the cities of equal proportions on 

 he globe. 



There are six colleges under denominational control, one medi- 

 cal college and three theological seminaries. The State univers- 

 ity justly ranks as one of the great universities of the country. 

 It has an able corps of professors, of high repute, and its cur- 

 riculum covers all the branches of science, literature, languages, 

 mechanic arts, agriculture, and medicine as taught in the fore- 

 most universities of the world. Take it all in all, we proudly 

 say that we do not believe that there is any other community 

 better equipped with a system of seminaries of learning more 

 complete, synietrical, and thorough than the State of Minnesota. 



We may justly measure the commercial value of a state by its 

 railways and waterways. How well we are furnished to meet 

 the imperiors demands of a commercial age, let facts attest. 

 Nine great railway corporations serve every portion of the state 



