304 ROBERT HEYWOOD FERNALD 



Times were hard ; the country was in a state of confusion 

 and uncertainty; the interpretation of this law as passed was 

 different in various states, and many sad mistakes were made 

 during the history of the founding of these institutions. The 

 conception was in itself wonderful, and, in spite of many 

 serious mistakes on the part of the different states, a new 

 era was opened to engineering education by the passage of the 

 bill. The conditions of the law were that for each senator 

 and representative in congress the state should receive 

 30,000 acres of public lands, open for sale at $1.25 per acre, 

 or instead each state was to receive scrip to be sold for the 

 benefit of the state. For various reasons — misunderstanding 

 of the law, a feeling of impatience or uncertainty, trickery or 

 bad management — nearly all of the states failed to realize 

 the full $1.25 per acre, and the majority received but a very 

 small portion of this amount, one state receiving as little as 

 41 cents per acre. One state stands as a marked exception, 

 viz., New York. Through the wisdom and caution of Mr. 

 Ezra Cornell the investment was made to realize between $6 

 and $7 per acre on all but a small portion, which had been sold 

 before Mr. Cornell secured control at 53 cents per acre. The 

 result was that New York state received 42 per cent of the 

 amount realized from the total grant from her share of scrip, 

 which was only about ten per cent of the total. The benefits 

 resulting from the wisdom of Mr. Cornell have been most ap- 

 parent in the progress of the excellent institution bearing his 

 name. Nine states only succeeded in securing as much as the 

 $1.25 per acre, and of these Tennessee received the least, 

 $1.34 J. The nine states to invest to good advantage were 

 Tennessee, Wisconsin, Florida, Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, 

 California, Kansas, and New York, the last three receiving 

 more than $5 each per acre. These nine states received for 

 2,459,920 acres the sum of $10,633,860, while the remaining 

 twenty nine received for 7,117,920 acres only $5,232,512. 

 Considering this most unfortunate start, the positions occu- 

 pied by the various state institutions at the present day are 

 most flattering, as each state has since endeavored to live 

 up to the letter of the law, and has made up the initial loss to a 

 certain extent by liberal appropriations from time to time. 



