various forms of professional engineering, in none of which, except those connected with or growing immediately out of agriculture, is there present or probable immediate future need for any large number of highly trained men. On the other hand, an unusually large number of people engaged in agriculture on a comparatively large scale, on their own farms and not as hirelings or tenants, makes an unusual demand for a very large number of men possessed of such scientific knowledge and training as will enable them to cultivate their farms, market their crops, breed and feed and otherwise care for their live stock, and perform all the other duties of agriculturists intelligently and profitably without other guidance than their own knowledge and their own powers of intelligent observation and judg

ment.

Again, the limited range of variety in soil and climate and in staple crops shows the importance of providing comparatively few strong and fundamental courses in agriculture for the largest possible number of students, rather than a large variety of intensively specialized courses for fewer students. The same conditions call for a similar policy in regard to students in courses in home economics, domestic science, and homemaking.

The increasing need for highways to be constructed across country devoid of the need of difficult engineering feats, the growing demand for agricultural engineering, including the care and use of power machinery, etc., and for tradesmen possessed of a high degree of scientific knowledge and trained skill create a corresponding need and demand for courses of instruction in these subjects for large numbers of students, some of which courses at least should be of college grade. The large number of young men and women in the State who have not had high-school education and who will not attend college creates at least a temporary demand for serious and systematic instruction in agriculture, in the trades and industries, and in home economics in courses below college grade, much of which should be given in comparatively short courses and under conditions which will make attendance as inexpensive as possible.

The ideals and the educational and cultural traditions of the people of the State are responsible for the justifiable demand for a large element of cultural education in all these schools, but the need for special and professional courses in the fine arts, literature, and the languages does not appear to be sufficient to justify an attempt to give them at more than one place.

The commercial interests of the State are already sufficiently large to justify commercial courses of higher or lower grade in the university and the agricultural college, and the commercial nature of farming in this State creates a demand for courses in farm accounting in the agricultural college and possibly in the university, in the

schools at Wahpeton and Bottineau, and in the rural high schools. It also makes it desirable that simple farm accounting should be taught in the rural elementary schools. The normal schools should therefore offer instruction in this subject and in those simple forms of bookkeeping which relate to the home and to household affairs. There seems, however, to be no reason why the normal schools should give courses in those commercial branches that are not, and can not be, taught in the elementary schools.

To these purposes and tasks should the institutions herein considered adjust themselves in generous and hearty cooperation and with such division of work as will result in the greatest economy and the largest and most efficient service.

Chapter III.

THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA.

The early interest of the people of North Dakota in higher education is shown by the fact that provision for a university was made by the Territorial assembly, February 23, 1883, more than six years before the Territory became a State (Special Session Laws of the Territorial legislature, ch. 40, secs. 13-15). These laws authorize the support and endowment of the university by means of a "university fund income and all other sums of money appropriated by any law to the university fund income of North Dakota."

The university thus provided for was located at Grand Forks, and first opened its doors to students on September 8, 1884. It is the oldest of the State's institutions for higher education. During the first year of the existence of the university its faculty consisted of four instructors: A president, who was professor of metaphysics; a vice president, who was professor of natural sciences; an assistant professor of Greek and Latin; and a preceptress and instructor in English and mathematics. It is said that all the 79 students of this year were below college grade. During the first seven years the teaching staff of the university increased to 13 and the number of students to 151.

From the beginning the university has been open to both men and

women.

CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS.

In November, 1887, the people of the Territory of Dakota voted in favor of the division of the Territory into the two Territories of North Dakota and South Dakota. In November, 1889, North Dakota, with boundaries as at present, became a State of the Union. The constitution of the State, adopted in 1889, provides for a system of public education. Article 19 of this constitution provides for the establishment of the State university and school of mines in the city of Grand Forks. The Revised Code of 1905 (ch. 10, sec. 1040) provides that "the University of North Dakota as now established and located at Grand Forks shall continue to be the university of the State." The same chapter records the provision for a board of five trustees, to be appointed by the governor of the State, to have charge of the affairs of the university, and outlines the powers and duties of

this board. This was the method of control of the university until the creation of the present State board of regents in July, 1915.

By the terms of the enabling act admitting the Territory to statehood, Congress granted the university 72 sections (46,080 acres) of public lands which had been reserved for university purposes in an act of February 18, 1881, and in addition thereto apportioned to it 40,000 acres of the 500,000 acres given to the State in lieu of grants provided in the acts of September 4, 1841, and September 28, 1850. The school of mines was granted 40,000 acres. Thus the total grant of land to the university through the enabling act was 86,080 acres, and the grand total to the university and the school of mines was 126,080 acres. Of this amount, by July, 1910, 89,567.82 acres had been sold for $1,163,324.26, and the portion paid in had been invested in such a way that, together with the interest at 6 per cent on unpaid land contracts and rentals and hay permits on unsold lands, it yielded an annual income of $65,026.09.1

Chapter 40 of the Special Session Laws of 1883 provided for a special annual appropriation of one-tenth of 1 mill for the support of the university. This appropriation was subsequently changed, as follows: In the Revised Code of 1899, two-fifths of 1 mill; in the Session Laws of 1907, thirty-three one-hundredths of 1 mill; in the Session Laws of 1913, two-fifths of 1 mill; in the Session Laws of 1915, a fixed sum, $102,720, was appropriated in lieu of the university's portion of the millage tax.

In the biennial period 1915 and 1916 the total income of the university from all sources and for all purposes, including the State public health laboratory and its branches, the mining substation, the biological station, and the geological survey, amounted to $400,743.55, of which $270,760 is classed as "educational." 2

The growth of the university, like that of the State, has been rapid and sure. As already stated, the first faculty consisted of only 4 members, and only 79 students, all below college grade, were enrolled the first year; but during the first seven years of the life of the school the faculty increased to 13 and the student enrollment to 151. In 1915-16 the faculty contained a total of 168 members and the total enrollment of students was 1,241, of whom 675 were regular college students in residence. Of these, only a very few had entered with less than 15 units and none with less than 14. It is, however, quite evident that the influence of the university has not yet reached all parts of the State as it should. (See map, fig. 8, showing distribution of resident students.)

1 See Report of the Temporary Educational Commission to the Governor and Legislature of the State of North Dakota, Dec. 27, 1912, pp. 31 and 32.

2 See Appendix VIII, Table 48.

CAMPUS AND BUILDINGS.

The material growth of the university has, to some extent at least, kept pace with the increase in faculty and students, and the consequent demand for room and equipment. To the original small campus additions have been made by purchase and gift until it now contains about 120 acres. A dormitory for men was built in 1883, and a dormitory for women was authorized in 1887 and erected in

At

FIG. 8.-Distribution of resident students enrolled in the University of North Dakota, at Grand Forks, exclusive of summer sessions, 1914-15. (See Table 31, p. 136.) The figures above the county name in each case give the population in 1910. that date the population of Golden Valley County (later divided into Golden Valley, Billings, and Slope Counties) was 10,186; and the population of Morton County (later subdivided into Morton and Sioux Counties) was 25,289.

The figures inclosed in the circle in each case indicate the number of students from the county who are enrolled at the university.

This institution drew 583 students from 42 of the 52 counties in North Dakota (of whom 33.2 per cent came from Grand Forks County), and 104 from without the State; total, 687.

In 1910 the population of North Dakota was 577,056. Approximately 60 per cent of the population was found in that portion of the State located east of the western boundary lines of the Counties of Rolette, Pierce, Wells, Kidder, Logan, and McIntosh, which divide the State into two nearly equal parts, and 40 per cent was found in the portion west of this line; whereas, of the 583 North Dakota students in residence at the university, approximately 78 per cent came from the territory east of the line indicated, and only about 22 per cent from west of this line.

1889. On the campus at present are: Merrifield Hall, in which are located administration offices, study and recitation, rooms, etc.; Science Hall, in which are located the departments of geology and mineralogy, physics, and biology, including special work of the school of medicine; the Mechanical Engineering Building, in which are located machine and forge shops, foundry, mechanical labora