collegiate education in connection with an agricultural one. Each state senator was authorized to select one student, not less than sixteen years of age, who should be entitled to two years tuition in this college; and the president of the college was permitted to draw upon the state treasurer for eleven dollars and twenty-five cents per quarter for each student so attending; the money to be refunded out of the proceeds of the agricultural lands when selected.
This was done because the act of congress making grants for the establishment of state colleges of agriculture required these schools to be in operation in 1867. The time was subsequently extended five years. Meanwhile the board of commissioners, John F. Miller, I. H. Douthit, and J. C. Avery, proceeded[1] to locate the agricultural-college lands, chiefly in Lake county. In 1881, 23,000 acres had been sold at $2.50 an acre, giving a fund of $60,000 for the support of the agricultural department of this school.
Of the state-university lands, about 16,000 acres remained unsold in 1885 of the 46,000 acres belonging to this institution. This remainder, located in the Willamette Valley, was held at two dollars an acre. An act locating the state university at Eugene City was passed by the legislature of 1872. The people of Lane county, in consideration of the location being made in their midst, made a gift to the state of the grounds necessary, and the building erected upon it,
- ↑ No building was erected, nor was the location of the college secured to Corvallis. By simply adopting the Corvallis institution as it stood, a great difficulty was removed, and expense saved, while the land grant was secured. Twenty-two students were entered in 1868. In 1871 the people of Benton co. presented 35 acres of land to the college to make a farm, on which the agricultural students labored a short time each day of the school-week, receiving compensation therefor. Wheat and fruit were cultivated on the farm; fertilizers are tested, and soils analyzed. Lectures are given on meteorology, botany, fruit-culture, chemistry, and assaying. The building was enlarged, and the apparatus increased from time to time, with collections of minerals. The farm was valued at $5,000, the buildings at $6,000. In 1876 about 100 students took the agricultural course, all of whom were required to perform a small amount of labor on the farm, and to practise a military drill. The state makes an annual appropriation of $5,000 toward the current expenses of the college. Dept Agric. Rept, 1871-2, 325; 1875, 397, 492; Or. Laws, 1868, 40-41; Or. Legisl. Docs, 1870, app. 12-16; Or. Laws, 1872, 133-5; Governor's Message, 1872, 12-13; Portland West Shore, Oct. 1880.
