EDUCATION AND RESEARCH IN AGRICULTURE AND 

 HOME ECONOMICS IN THE UNITED STATES. 



In the United States education is chiefly maintained and controlled 

 by the States, counties, municipalities, and townships. The Federal 

 Government has charge of education only in the District of Columbia, 

 Indian reservations, Alaska, and some of the insular possessions. It 

 has, however, made grants of land and money to the States for the 

 partial support of colleges and secondary schools in which agriculture, 

 home economics, and other vocational subjects are taught and for agri- 

 cultural experiment stations. Research in agriculture and home eco- 

 nomics is also carried on by the United States Department of Agriculture. 



HISTORICAL OUTLINE). 



Efforts to disseminate information regarding improved methods of 

 agriculture and to apply scientific principles to agricultural practices 

 were begun in the United States in the closing years of the eighteenth 

 century through the formation of agricultural societies. During the 

 first half of the nineteenth century agriculture was taught in a number 

 of schools. Attempts were also made to create colleges in which the 

 sciences and their applications to agriculture and other industries would 

 be taught. In 1857 the first State agricultural college was opened to 

 students at Lansing, Mich. This movement was greatly broadened by 

 the passage in 1862 of the land-grant act of Congress under which large 

 tracts of land were given to the States, from the sale of which permanent 

 funds were established for the endowment of colleges "where the lead- 

 ing object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical sub- 

 jects, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning 

 as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, * * * in order 

 to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes 

 in the several pursuits and professions in life." 



Under this act and supplementary legislation colleges in which agri- 

 culture was taught were established in all the States. In 20 States 

 these institutions have developed into State universities in which there 

 are colleges of agriculture. In 1890 Congress passed the so-called 

 Morrill Act, granting Federal funds to the States for these colleges. This 

 was supplemented in 1907 by the Nelson amendment, granting addi- 

 tional funds. 



Under these two acts each State received $50,000 annually. In 1 7 

 Southern States this money is divided between colleges for the white 



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