The Legislature has also turned over to the college the proceeds arising 

 from the sale of various tracts of unsurveyed lands within the Virginia 

 Military District, and it is hoped that a considerable amount will ulti- 

 mately be realized from this source. 



2. Upon leaving the region of accomplished facts and exact figures 

 and taking up the second topic proposed, namely, the true plan and scope 

 of this institution, we enter upon debated ground, and find every where 

 decided and discordant views as to what it should be and do. Unfortu- 

 nately, the organic law is not free from ambiguity ; at least, diverse con- 

 structions have been put upon its language by equally sincere and zealous 

 friends of industrial education. "The leading object 7 ' of the institutions 

 to be supported by the endowments arising from the laud grant "shall 

 be," in the words of the organic act, " to teach such branches of learning 

 as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts," " without excluding 

 other scientific and classical studies," " in order to promote the liberal and 

 practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and 

 professions of life." 



It is obvioug that a wide and generous scheme of education can find 

 place under such a charter, and it is hard to see how any narrow or ex- 

 clusive plan can be reconciled with it. Both sorts of schemes, neverthe- 

 less, have been and are advocated as legitimately derived from its terms. 

 Perhaps it will help us in gaining an idea of the kind of institutions 

 that fall within the scope of the law to notice one or two kinds that seem 

 to be excluded. 



It seems safe to say that it would be a perversion of the fund to 

 establish upon it an institution similar in kind to the literary colleges 

 that already abound in Ohio. These institutions may turn out an occa- 

 sional farmer or mechanic, but nobody will claim for them that it is their 

 " leading object" to teach such branches as are related to agriculture and 

 the mechanic arts. 



On the other hand, it would seem to be a real though less gross viola- 

 tion of the letter and spirit of the law to devote these foundations to 

 schools narrowly agricultural in their scope in other words, to institu" 

 tions that should make it their chief concern to give training in the art of 

 practical agriculture ; lor, aside from the clause that forbids the exclusion 

 of "other scientific and classical studies," the mechanic arts are jointly 

 named with agriculture in the national grant, and are entitled to an equal 

 share with it to all educational advantages furnished by the grant. 



The Trustees of the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College have 

 sought to avoid these and other forbidden paths, and, after mature delib- 

 eration and prolonged discussion, have established an institution and 



