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 [THE WORK OF CORNEIvL UNIVERSITY FOR 
 AGRICULTURE. 
 
 Address by President Schurmafi to the College of Agriculture, 
 February igih, igbz. 
 
 I find there is a good deal of misunderstanding in regard to 
 Iwbat Cornell University is doing for agriculture. I haVea severe 
 lletter before me in which the critic says that some of his friends 
 i" p^int out the large amounts of money that Cornell is getting 
 
 irdrn [the] federal and state governments and then ask, what is 
 
 ^he doing for agriculture in return." The letter concludes 
 Ithus ; "The farmers see great preparations made to receive all 
 
 ixthers, and comparatively nothing for the farmer, when they say 
 l(hg. leading idea that made Cornell possible was the aiding of 
 |agticulture." 
 
 These are very grave assertions. If correct, Cornell Univer- 
 jsity is guilty of a breach of trust ; and its officers should be called 
 ||o account. If incorrect, it should be easy to refute them. 
 
 |; I propose to lay the facts before you. And following the points' 
 t®f the damnatory letter I have cited I will examine,, first, the 
 |@ir^gtiii of Cornell University and the ideas that governed it ; 
 adly, the amount of money received by Cornell' from the 
 
 ederal and state governments ; and, thirdly, the service rpndered 
 jr. Cornell to agricultural education and the advancement of the 
 
 ll^iner's interests. 
 
 FEDERAL APPROPRIATIONS. 
 
 Here ill a few wofds is the history of the origin of Cornell 
 [University in its relation to the congressional land grant of 1862 
 lifad su-bse<}uent appropriation of 1890, including in the words of 
 ifeltfe acts the Object of that legislationi 
 

 ) 
 
 — 2 
 
 By the Morrill Act of July 2, 1862, Congress enacted that there 
 should be granted to the several states certain amounts of public 
 land, from the sale of which there should be established a 
 perpetual fund, "the interest of which shall be inviolably appro- 
 priated .... to the endowment, support and maintenance 
 of at least one college where the leading object shall be, without 
 excluding other scientific and classical studies and including mili- 
 tary tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to 
 agriculture and the mechanic arts. ' ' The provisions of this act 
 were accepted by New York State whereupon there was handed 
 over to the State Comptroller, New York's share of the congress- 
 ional land script. The State legislature then passed an act 
 (April 27, 1865) establishing Cornell University and appropria- 
 ting to it the income from the sale of the script in the State's 
 possession ; and providing in the Charter of the University that 
 "the leading object of the corporation hereby created shall be to 
 teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and 
 the mechanic arts, including military tactics, .... But 
 such other branches of science and knowledge may be embraced 
 in the plan of instruction and investigation pertaining to the 
 University as the trustees may deem useful and proper." The 
 College Land Script Fund whose income was thus appropriated to 
 Cornell University amounts to $688,576.12. The State, as 
 guardian of the fund, has turned it into the State treasury, — 
 having issued to Cornell University a certificate of indebtedness 
 on which it pays an annual interest at the rate of five per cent, 
 amounting to $34,428.80. This is applied to " instruction in such 
 branches as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, etc." 
 
 Some years later Congress saw that the provision made for the 
 support of the colleges established under the Morrill Act of 
 1862 was not sufficient and accordingly, by the second Morrill 
 Act of August 30, 1890, it was enacted that there be "appro- 
 priated to each state for the more complete endowment and main- 
 tenance of colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the nie- 
 chanijC arts established under the provisions of the federal act of 
 July 2, 1862, the sum of $15,000," to be annually increa-sed by 
 $t,ooo until the sum of $25,000 was reached, " and the amount 
 thereafter to be paid to each state and territory shall be $25,000 
 to be applied only to instruction in agriculture, the mechanic arts. 
 
— 3 — 
 
 the English language and the various branches of mathematical, 
 physical, natural and economic science, with special reference to 
 their application in the industries of life, and to the facilities for 
 such instruction." This congressional appropriation is now 
 $25,000 annually. 
 
 There is, therefore, available for "instruction in agriculture, 
 the mechanic arts, the English language and the various branches 
 of mathematical, physical, natural and economic science" 
 $59,428.80 received from the bounty of the United States. This 
 is all that Cornell University receives from the federal govern- 
 ment for any purpose. To prevent misapprehension I should 
 perhaps add that the Federal Agricultural Experiment Station, 
 for which there is an annual appropriation of $13,500, is located 
 at Cornell. But while the University lends its buildings and 
 grounds and gives freely the services of its administrative officers 
 for the conduct of the experiments and the management of the 
 finances of the station, it gets no financial return, and not a cent 
 of the Experiment Station funds can be used for purposes of in- 
 struction. Cornell has, therefore, but $59,428.80 annually from 
 the United States ; and the laws enacted by congress prescribe 
 that it shall be used only for instruction and facilities "iu agri- 
 culture, the mechanic arts, the English language "and the various 
 branches of mathematical, physical, natural and economic 
 science. ' ' 
 
 EIGHT HUNDRED FREE N. Y. SCHOI^ARS AT CORNEI<I,. 
 
 In return for the federal land grant Cornell University gives 
 free instruction, in all depsirtmeuts, to four students annually 
 from each of the assembly districts of the State, making in all 
 600 free students annually. 
 
 It gives free instruction also to all agricultural students, of 
 whom at present nearly 200 are enrolled. Thus Cornell Uni- 
 versity is a benefactor of the State of New York to the extent of 
 conferring upon it annually free instruction for 800 students. 
 On the average it costs a large and well-equipped university like 
 Cornell about $300 for the education of each student. Cornell, 
 therefore, annually gives to the people of the State of New York 
 not much less than $250,000. 
 
— 4 — 
 
 COST OP AGRICUI,TURAI, GOIvLEGS AT CORNELt. 
 
 The entire amount received from the United States— $59,428.80 
 annually — does not begin to provide instruction even in, ' ' such 
 branches of learning as are related to agriculture' ' alonfi. The 
 present curriculum of the College of Agriculture embraces 
 courses in technical agriculture, botany, entomology, zoplpgy, 
 English, chemistry, physics, drawing, physiology, dairy hus- 
 bandry, political economy, and horticulture, besides a year or 
 more of electives. The cost of giving instruction va. these sub- 
 jects for the present academic year, 1901-1902, may be seen from 
 the following table : 
 
 Salaries of professors, etc., in subjects enumerated % 88,975 00 
 
 Appropriations to said departments for apparatus, etc__ 32,773 77 
 Estimated cost of elective courses 25,000 00 
 
 1146,748 77 
 As to most of the courses included in the agricultural curricu- 
 lum, I think the departments giving them would need, if they 
 were to be first-clags, to hie about as large and efficient as they 
 now are at Cornell, even if you had not a university but an agri- 
 cultural college alone. But the departments of English, chem- 
 istry, physics, political economy, and drawing are larger with us 
 than the demands of an agricultural college alone would require, 
 The aggregate cost of the annual maintenance' of these depart- 
 ments is $81,375. I propose to charge only half of that to the 
 College of Agriculture; th,at is to say, the total annual cost of in- 
 struction in agriculture ($[46,748.77) should be reduced by 
 $40,687.50, which would leave a net cost of $106,061.27. To 
 this, however, should be added something for library (of -which 
 the annual cost at Cornell is $34,390.25) and other general equip- 
 ment of which agricultural students freely avail themselves, be- 
 sides heating, lighting, repairs, etc. 1 consider $35,000 annually 
 a low estimate for these objects. If this be added to $106,061.27, 
 the total cost of maintaining the Agricultural College at Cornell 
 University is found to 'he $14.1,061.2'/. 
 
 NEW YORK STATE WORK AT CORNEI,!,. 
 
 Towards the maintenance of this Agricultural College by C^meU 
 University, the State of New York does not contribute one cent. It 
 
did appropriate a few years ago $50,000 for a Dairy building, 
 which was intended to form one wing of a great State Hall of 
 Agriculture. But that Hall still remains unbuilt, 
 
 I should mention the $35,000 granted to the College of Agn-: 
 culture by chapter 430 of the laws of 1899, which can be applied- 
 only to the special object for which it was granted, and that is 
 the promotion of agricultural knowledge throughout the State by 
 university ejftension methods. The College is happy to aid the 
 State in so useful and helpful a work, but the College itself 
 receives no benefit from it, For the sake of completeness I will 
 add that. the State maintains at Cornell, University a New York 
 State College of Forestry, for which it makes an annual appro- 
 priation of $10,000, and a New York State College of Veterinary 
 Medicine, for which it makes an annual appropriation of $25,000. 
 No other appropriation of any kind, either for the University or for 
 State institutions located here, is received by Cornell from the State 
 of New York. All the rest of the revenues of the University is 
 derived from private endowments. 
 
 WORK OF THE AGfRICmTURAI, COLLEGE. 
 
 Now let us see what the College of Agriculture at Cornell is 
 doing for agricultural education and for the promotion of the 
 interest of farmers. I include the University extension work 
 mentioned above and also the work in the experiment station. 
 
 Since the College of Agriculture was established it has given 
 instruction to more than sixteen hundred students in residence at 
 Ithaca and it has become one of the foremost colleges of its kind 
 in the United States. Without boasting, I think it may be said 
 that it is recognized as the leader among agricultural colleges and 
 has drawn students, both for advanced and undergraduate work, 
 from nearly every state in the union and from many foreign 
 countries. Students, who can pass the entrance examinations 
 may take a four years' course or a two years' course or a one 
 year's course. But those who cannot pass examinations are 
 admitted to a short winter course, especially designed to meet the 
 needs of young men working for the other nine months on the 
 farms. 
 
 There are in attendance at the present time some two hundred 
 students in the various courses. Tuition is free in all courses. 
 
—'6'— 
 • <» 
 
 During the last five years there have been from ten to twenty 
 graduate students in the University each year who have 
 selected both their major and minor subjects or their major sub- 
 ject in the College of Agriculture. This indicates the opinion 
 that students from other colleges have of the work being done 
 here. 
 
 In addition to the students in residence, we are teaching a vast 
 number of students scattered throughout the state by means of 
 correspondence courses. This work is for the promotion of agri- 
 cultural knowledge throughout the State. There are enrolled in 
 the Farmers' Reading Course department 30,000 students ; in 
 the Farmers' Wives' Reading Course 8,000 students ; in the 
 Junior Naturalists' Club about 30,000 pupils organized into 1,700 
 clubs; in the Home Nature Study Course about 1,500 teachers. 
 
 It will be seen that the College of Agriculture has extended its 
 work over a wide field and is reaching a vast number of the rural 
 population. It may be said that in addition to the persons 
 reached as enumerated many hundred more get instruction inci- 
 dentally. It may also be said that the work of University Exten- 
 . sion is carried on along University lines. I^essons are sent to be 
 studied and examination questions answered and returned. This 
 necessitates a vast amount of work that cannot be tabulated in 
 any way except by stating the number of studehts in these 
 various University Extension Courses. 
 
 Nearly five hundred farmers have conducted experiments on 
 their own farms under the careful supervision of members of the 
 teaching force. This is in addition to the investigations carried 
 on at the University. There is scarcely a subject connected with 
 fruit or field crops that has not been .studied from close range in 
 a majority of the counties of the State. 
 
 I cannot state accurately how many lectures before farmers' 
 organizations have been delivered since the College was estab- 
 lished, but they certainly number several thousand. In addition 
 to all this, the College has done a vast work in helping the farm- 
 ers out of their difficulties by personal correspondence. From, 
 five to ten thousand letters per year in answer to questions are 
 written by the staff. This work alone is a great tax upon the 
 College, but the benefits derived are so great .that the practice 
 
— 7 — 
 
 still continues of answering, to the best of our ability, all ques- 
 tions related to agriculture, directly or remotely. 
 • The Experiment. Station, a department of the College of Agri- 
 culture, has published 196 bulletins, in editions averaging more 
 than 20,000 each, and fourteen annual reports. Whenever there 
 is a serious outbreak of insects or fungi, a specialist is dispatched 
 immediately to make investigations a?id to help overcome the 
 difficulty. It is becoming well known throughout the State, that 
 at any time the farmers may command, and they do command, the 
 attention and the scientific knowledge of the entire force, with the 
 view of securing relief. Every department of scientific and prac- 
 tical agriculture is represented on the staff, therefore we are able 
 to give assistance in time of need in any activity related to agri- 
 culture. 
 
 Our agricultural students have gone to all parts of the State 
 and qarried with them the light of science to aid the farmer in his 
 arduous and difficult, though independent and noble calling. Our 
 professors, by their investigations on the diseases that attack 
 grains and fruits and flocks and herds, have saved, I believe, 
 millions of dollars to the State. Did not the Cornell method of 
 combating the pear-sylla save over a million dollars to a single 
 county ? Have not Cornell methods of orcharding added noticeably 
 to the prosperity of our farmers and fruit growers ? I have 
 at least been told so, on what I regard as expert authority. And 
 I believe that the farmers of the State hold in grateful honor the 
 names of Professors Roberts, Bailey, Caldwell, I,aw, Comstock, 
 Atkinson, Wing, Slingerland, Craig and their newer fellow- 
 laborers at Cornell who are devoting their lives to bringing science 
 to the aid of the farmers as the engineering faculties have brought 
 science to the aid of the manufacturing classes. The President 
 of the University has always co-operated with them to the utmost 
 of his ability ; for, having been brought up on a farm, he feels 
 peculiar and most earne.st sympathy with this division of the 
 Univer.sity. And what the President and Faculty have recom- 
 mended the Board of Trustees have, to the utmost of their power, 
 authorized. 
 
 It must, however, be borne in mind that, apart from the funds 
 heretofore mentioned, all the property and endowments of Cornell 
 University have come from the gifts of individual benefactors; 
 
— 8 — 
 
 and nearly all these benefactors have designated the olyects fa 
 which their gifts were intended. The University has sacredl] 
 observed the obligations thus imposed upon it. No one has givefl 
 for agriculture ; apparently no one will. The University funa 
 are all mortgaged for the existing instruction in agriculture, mk 
 chanicarts, and the other divisions of the University. A big Hal 
 is needed for the work of the College of Agriculture. Will not th 
 State provide it f 
 
 Professor Robertson, Agricultural and Dairy Commissioner 
 the Dominion of Canada, after a three days' visit to Cornelj 
 writes as follows : 
 
 " I do not know of another great University that is doing thl 
 same sort of work. Institutions of this kind generally confin 
 their activities to the profe.ssional and schglastic classes, but her 
 is one that is bringing its culture and its wealth of knowledg^ 
 based on careful research, to the help of the common people ij 
 their practical, every-day work." 
 
 We want to make and keep the Agricultural College at Cornel 
 the best in the United States. Other states have furnished buili 
 ings, equipment and facilities for their agricultural colleges 
 legislative appropriations. Within recent years Illinois, low^ 
 and Wisconsin have each voted from $200,000 to $300,000 fq 
 that purpose. We appeal to New York State to follow their es 
 ample, and the exhibit I have made shows, I think conclusivelj 
 the merits of the Agricultural College at Cornell. 
 
The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
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