U8 MONTANA 19U 



enter college; the interests of this majority are not to be sacrificed 

 for the smaller number who are preparing for a college course. 



Most of the high schools offer some business training at least along 

 commercial limes. Every )^ear a larger number provide practical instruction 

 in domestic arts and in ait least the beginnings of mechanical trades, and 

 several have agricultural courses of most clearly demonstrated value. 



In organizing the work of higher education Montana has been peculiarly 

 fortunate. The act of Congress which admitted the state to the union, sup- 

 plemented by other laws, set apart for the endowment of higher education 

 vast areas of the public domain. For all (the higher institutions 

 Schools in this aggregates nearly seven hundred square miles. This land 

 This State is not taken, however, just as i't happens to come, but has 

 Are in been selected with great care, in all parts of the state. As a 



Funds. considerable amount of this land is valuable timber land, the 



state institultions wilil in time have a very productive endow- 

 mient fund. Already it yields a much larger annual revenue than the total 

 income of many private colleges of renown, and the legislature of the state 

 supplements this by liberal appropriations from the general funds of the 

 state. To all this is to be added, if the people endorse the action of the 

 last legislature, a special state levy of one mill for educational purposes. 



In locating the institutions of higher education, regard was had for the 

 fact that Montana is a state of great distances, and it was planned to have 

 somie one institution readily accessible to the different centers of population, 

 and to give to several different communities the stimulus to educational 

 achievement that comes from having such an institution in its midst. 



When the educational institutions were established, most of the popu- 

 lation was in the western third of the state, and all the higher institutions 

 were located somewhat west of the geographical center, but the extensions 

 of railroad building has made them accessible to all parts of the state. 



The Ubiversity of Montana is located at Missoula, at the lower end 

 of the famous Bitter Root valley. A fine group of imposing buildings, 

 though soniewhat dwarfed in apearance by the gigantic mountain back- 

 ground, houses the different departments of the university. 

 Montana's In Montana from the outset there has been strong opposi- 



Splendid tion to the plan so common in many new states of trying to 

 and Pro make a great showing in numbers by low standards of entrance 

 gressive requirements. When the University of Montana was opened 



University, in 1895, the fact that there were only two or three places in 

 the state where it was possible to make complete preparation 

 for college entrance, seemed to necessitate the maintenance for a time of a 

 preparatory department. But with the growth of high schools the need of 

 this has passed away, and for some years the attendance has been made up 

 entirely of pupils of coillegiate grade. 



The great majority of students are enrolled in courses in science, arts, 

 and letters, leading to the degree of B. A. or B. S. But in 1911 a law 



— Montana can produce more wheat than any state in the Union. 



