TABLE 1.-Amount of Federal funds received by the 69 land-grant institutions through the First Morrill Act of 1862 and the supplementary Morrill acts administered through the Department of the Interior, by fiscal year, 1873 to 1940 1

1 Data from Walter J. Greenleaf, Preliminary Report: Land-Grant Colleges and Universities: Year Ended June 30, 1937, U. S. Office of Education, Circular 172 (multilithed, 1937), p. 4.

2 These funds are in the nature of a Federal endowment, invested in the States, and income only is used.

3 These are continuing appropriations, $50,000 to each State, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico.

4 Funds depend on the annual authorization by Congress. Each State and the Territory of Hawaii receive varying amounts according to density of population. Data supplied by U. S. Office of Education.

• No report.

The Bankhead-Jones Act provides for the apportionment of $20,000 to each State and Territory but the increments

authorized in the Act are allocated ". . . in the proportion which the total population of each . . . State and the Territory of Hawaii bears to the total population of all the States and the Territory of Hawaii

Scope of the Resident
Educational Program of

the Land-Grant Institutions

" 22

The educational program of the land-grant institutions has been gradually developed in response to the needs of the groups that they were endeavoring to serve. These institutions have been unusually sensitive to the needs of their clientele and, as a result, there has been a gradual broadening of their educational programs. Thus home economics, which was not originally included in the educational program, has attained an important place in the current curriculums of many of the land-grant institutions. In like manner, instruction in several specialized engineering fields, teacher education, forestry, veterinary medicine, and commerce and business has come to be provided by some of these institutions. At the same time, the instructional program has been very generally extended upward into the graduate field, and a wide variety of short courses has been typically included within the range of activities of these institutions. Their present program is, within limits, functional; and it is in a true sense the product of an evolutionary process.

The typical program of resident instruction in agriculture in the land-grant colleges and universities, aside from those maintained exclusively for Negroes, includes a group of undergraduate courses in each of several subjects, such as agronomy, animal husbandry, horticulture, etc. Courses of this description are the principal feature of the curriculums pursued by undergraduate students in agriculture, with some degree of concentration in the field chosen for major specialization. Prerequisite courses in the underlying sciences, particularly chemistry and biology, are required. In addition, courses in English, military science, and certain other subjects are commonly required. In general, a wide range

22 Ibid.

of specialized technical courses and of fundamental science courses is offered. Still other courses both in technical subjects and in basic sciences and economics are ordinarily provided for graduate students. Nearly all land-grant institutions offer the master's degree, and about one-third offer the doctorate, in one or more specialized agricultural fields. In the field of home economics, the program of resident instruction of the land-grant institutions is not so broad as it is in agriculture. This situation is undoubtedly due in part to the later introduction of home economics into the curriculum as a subject of study. A group of courses is ordinarily offered in each of several specialized fields and undergraduates are required to take some combination of these courses along with specified science prerequisites. Graduate courses in one or more fields of specialization, and the master's degree in the field of home economics, are offered by a large majority of the land-grant institutions. Only a few offer the doctorate in the field and only a very few have recently reported candidates for this degree. In the field of home economics also, work for the master's degree tends to be represented by a research thesis and subjects planned for the research worker, rather than by courses designed to increase the proficiency of students in their specialized technical fields.

The program of instruction in engineering maintained by the land-grant institutions is about as broad as that maintained in agriculture. In the main it consists of a group of specialized undergraduate courses in the several engineering fields, based upon a foundation of prerequisites in mathematics and other physical sciences. Most of the land-grant institutions offering undergraduate instruction in engineering also offer work leading to the master's degree in engineering. In connection with this work, somewhat greater effort is apparently made to increase technical skill than in the fields of agriculture or home economics. The doctor's degree in the field of engineering is offered by about one-fourth of the land-grant institutions.

The educational programs of the land-grant colleges maintained for Negroes differ consideraby in general char

acter from those in other land-grant institutions. One of their chief functions is the preparation of teachers for service in the elementary and secondary schools for Negroes in the South. As a result, about three-fifths of the students in these institutions take their majors in the arts and sciences, or in education.23 They have shown wisdom in adapting their instruction to the needs of their situation, as the opportunities in publicly controlled institutions in the South for Negroes to secure preparation for teaching are limited. For the remaining students instruction is provided chiefly in agriculture, mechanic arts, and home economics, with some offerings in business and commerce, nursing, and other fields.

By far the larger part of the instruction offered in the landgrant colleges for Negroes is of undergraduate or even, in some instances, of subcollegiate rank. In agriculture, the collegiate level of instruction has been attained with difficulty and there is a tendency to include courses of a secondary school grade. This tendency is also especially pronounced in the field of mechanic arts since training for the ordinary industrial pursuits, such as auto mechanics, carpentry, etc., is almost always necessarily substituted for instruction in engineering offered by the other land-grant institutions. In evaluating this situation it should be borne in mind that the inadequacies of Negro schools at the elementary and secondary levels place limits on what higher institutions can undertake, and that the economic opportunities for the Negro still further limit the lines of study that it is worthwhile for him to undertake.

In evaluating the instructional work of the land-grant colleges it must be borne in mind that their growth in their early years was conditioned by the fact that they found themselves in an educational environment that was far from hospitable. Their difficulties in this respect are well set forth in the following statement:

At that time [the early years of the land-grant institutions] most of the American universities and colleges were private institutions and they confined themselves principally to the teaching of the traditional classics, letters, and scholastic subjects. The scientific, the technical, and the practical as applied to the industries and trades, in which the 23 See Biennial Survey of Education: 1932-1934, ch. IV, pp. 470 ff.

vast majority of the people were engaged, had no place in the scheme of their curricula. Higher education was limited largely to those who planned to enter the learned professions. From the first the idea of democratizing higher learning received little sympathy from the existing private universities and colleges. The proposal was regarded as more or less visionary. The early leaders, therefore, realized that a new type of college would have to be created-a college that would provide instruction in both the liberal and practical arts for the classes of American citizens that had previously not had the means nor the social background for higher education in the old institutions.24

Suggested Modifications

of Curriculums

Although the instructional programs of the land-grant institutions may appear from this brief survey to have been very effective, it may still be reasonably held that these programs would probably have been more effective if those charged with determining their form and substance had possessed a somewhat larger vision of the purposes of the educational efforts of these institutions.

In the field of agriculture, for example, much emphasis has been placed upon productive efficiency. This was especially true in the earlier days. As a result not only the liberal elements which were, by specific mandate, to have been included in all curriculums, but also other offerings having important agricultural objectives, have been denied the consideration they might well have had. As examples, there may be cited three crucial objectives of agricultural education that have received relatively limited attention in the agricultural instruction offered by the land-grant institutions, although there is some evidence of increasing concern for them in recent years. They are: (1) Skill in business management; (2) economic insight; and (3) an active, unselfish disposition to cooperate in programs of social better

ment.

As an ultimate determinant of success or failure in farming, skill in business management is highly important, especially in the better agricultural regions. Yet provision

24 U. S. Office of Education, Survey of Land-Grant Colleges and Universities, Bulletin, 1930, No. 9 (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1930), vol. I, pt. I, p. 1.