Table X, Part 1, presents the statistics of (47) colleges, universities, or departments of universities, endowed with the national land grant of 1862, and having as a distinct purpose training in agriculture and the mechanic arts. The number of schools is the same as in 1883-84; the relative status of the schools with respect to instructors, students, etc., will be seen from the following totals, those in brackets being for 1883-'84: Preparatory departments: Number of instructors, 133 [79]; students-male, 1,703 [1,493]; female, 485 [452]. Scientific departments: Number of instructors, 512 [540]; students, 4,577 [4,212]; number of State and other free scholarships, 3,873 [3,159]. The receipts from State appropriations as reported for 21 States were $358,740, as against $378,379 reported from the same 21 States for 1883-84. Florida, which made no report of State appropriations last year, reports for the current year $10,000. For North Carolina, last year the appropriation was included in the totals for universities and colleges (Table IX); this year it is reported separately, and amounts to $10,500. In the case of 5 States the appropriations for this year are included in the totals for universities and colleges. A detailed examination of Table X of the Appendix will suffice to show how widely these colleges and universities differ from each other in respect to organization and resources. These differences, however, are the result of causes more or less transient, and do not indicate either fundamental difference of purpose or ultimate difference of rank. An examination of the admission requirements of 41 of the institutions in the table shows that for 15 the studies pursued in the common schools are a sufficient preparation, while 26 call for somewhat higher attainments. In 10 of the latter, the additional requirements are the elements of algebra and plane geometry; the remaining 16 include other branches, and one requires a high-school diploma. A comparison of the reports for the current year with those of 1880 shows for the majority of the schools marked increase in the number of teachers and in the number of students, while the large proportion of the students in the departments of industrial training is a proof that these institutions are realizing more and more fully the special purposes contemplated in the endowment of 1862. Several of these schools have long been noted for their very complete equipment for instruction in pure and applied science. The development of such instruction in the remaining schools has been retarded by the want of laboratories and apparatus. Much has been done during the last five years to supply these costly but indispensable appliances, so that a larger number of the schools can now be reported as fairly well equipped, while the better understanding of these necessities by the people gives hope of ampler provision in this respect in the future. The present status of a certain number of these schools with respect to technical training is indicated by a tabular statement on pages CCV and ccvi, showing for 10 institutions endowed with the grant of 1862, and for 8 not so endowed, the number of courses of technical training for which provision is made, and the present number of students in these courses according to returns received at this Office during the year. The following institutions have made special reports of new buildings, new improvements, new means of instruction: The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama has newly fitted up its chemical laboratory for analytical work; also erected a chapel, or public hall. The State Agricultural College of Colorado has erected a new chemical laboratory complete in all its appointments; greenhouse with latest improvements; machine shop with 15-horse-power engine, together with the latest improved machinery for wood and iron work; also water-works connected with the town system. Delaware College is about to establish an experimental station. The Illinois Industrial University reports a blacksmith shop with forges, anvils, and all necessary tools for 16 persons; $200 expended in new machines and tools for carpenter and machine shops; $1,500 in apparatus and materials for chemical, physical, and botanical laboratories. The Kansas State Agricultural College reports wing of main building, $2,000; greenhouse, $25.00; other buildings, $1,000; also general improvement of apparatus and machinery. Maine State College of Agriculture reports shop for mechanical instruction, including filing, forging, and wood working. Agricultural and Mechanical College of Mississippi reports new barns, stables, sheds, also 3 silos with capacity of 300 tons. The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Missouri reports a $100,000 addition to university building, of which the department makes use. University of North Carolina reports a biological laboratory; also an auditorium capable of seating 2,500 persons. Pennsylvania State College reports $11 for laboratories and apparatus, also $400 for mechanic arts department. Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College reports orchards, nursery, grapery, cabinets of minerals, etc. Table X, Part 2, presents the statistics of (56) schools and of collegiate departments of science not endowed with the land grant of 1862. Owing to the increase in the number of manual training schools, an effort has been made in this part of the table towards a distinct classification for such schools. In Division B, those schools which are essentially manual training schools have been brought together, while the general character of Division A remains unchanged, including besides schools of agriculture, general science, etc., some polytechnic schools, in which manual training may or may not be a distinct feature. The usual difficulties in a first effort at classification have been experienced. More extended inquiries on this subject will probably increase the number of institutions which should have recognition as manual training schools, and may show that some institutions now classed in Division A would properly be reported in Division B. As intimated above, where there has been any question as to classification, the distinction has been made as far as possible between schools organized primarily for the purpose of giving manual training, and those which make provision for a systematic course of instruction in science and its industrial applications, together with practice in the laboratory, machine shops, etc. As a rule, candidates for admission to the schools and collegiate departments included in Division A of Table X, Part 2, must be well grounded in mathematics. There is also a noticeable tendency to increase the requirements in the English language, and some preliminary acquaintance with French and German is strongly advised. In general these schools are well equipped for the work in which they are engaged. The increased patronage and resources of the institutions presented in Table X, and their general improvement, must be regarded as both a cause and an effect of the increased interest manifested in the subject of technical training throughout the country. In respect both to an understanding of the importance of such training, and to provision for the same, the United States bears very favorable comparison with foreign nations, a fact which is constantly recognized by foreign authorities. We must, however, admit that our distinction is due chiefly to provisions for training in the mechanic arts; in respect to agricultural training we are inferior to the European nations in which it has been fostered. The increasing recognition of the importance of technical training, and the disposition to seek it in approved institutions, is illustrated by certain facts in the recent history of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In his report for 1884, the president, Francis A. Walker, gives the number of students for each year from 1865'66 to 1884-'85, inclusive. From this table it is seen that the attendance steadily increased up to 1876-77, when the number of students was 215, then there was a falling off for two years; but in 1879-'80 the reaction commenced, since which date the attendance has again steadily increased, reaching 579 in 1884-'85. The president also notes the gratifying tendency to a widening of the field from which the students are drawn. He says: ance. Last year twenty-six States of the Union were represented on our list of attendThis year our students come from thirty-three States. Of the total number of 368 students in all classes of the regular courses, 235 are from Massachusetts, 41 from other New England States, and 92 from outside New England. Of the total number of 579, including special students, 358 are from Massachusetts, 70 are from other New England States, and 151 from outside New England. Not less than eleven Southern States are represented in the attendance. The following statement is of general interest, as indicating the need of constantly increasing resources to enable an institution of this kind to maintain a high standard: Large additional endowments are needed— 1. As a reserve against hard times, against the occurrence of financial disaster, and even against the possibilities of temporary internal mismanagement. It is a perilous position for an educational institution that it should depend so largely upon tuition fees as to draw one-half of its revenue from this source. Yet five-sixths of the income of the Institute of Technology will be thus derived the current year. 2. As a basis for free scholarships for a large number of deserving students, whose means would be severely taxed to meet the expenses of their maintenance, even were the charges of their tuition remitted. * 3. As a means to reducing somewhat the very high tuition fees now necessarily exacted from all students. 4. To place it in the power of the corporation to raise the compensation of the professors and other instructors of the school, to correspond, if not with the incomes of successful practitioners in the several scientific professions, at least with the salaries of professors and instructors in the leading classical colleges. 5. To enable the corporation and faculty, through the long future of the school, to meet promptly and fully all the progressive demands of industrial education, as well as, through original research and investigation, to pay back each year some part of that great debt which the arts owe to science. Experience seems to prove conclusively that an effective course of practical agricultural training will include farm work by the students. This plan is pursued in the Agricultural College of Michigan, which is one of the most successful of its class. President Willits observes in his report for 1884-'85: The college affords to its students the benefits of daily manual labor. Most of the labor is paid for, and lessens the expenses of the student. It is in part educational, varied for the illustration of the principles of science. The preservation of health and the cultivation of a taste for agricultural pursuits are two other important objects. Four years of study without labor, wholly removed from sympathy with the laboring world, during the period of life when habits and tastes are rapidly formed, will almost inevitably produce disinclination, if not inability, to perform the work and duties of the farm. To accomplish the objects of the institution, it is evident that the student must not, in acquiring a scientific education, lose either the ability or the disposition to labor on the farm. If the farmers, then, are to be educated, they must be educated on the farm itself; and it is due to this large class of our population that facilities for improvement second to none other in the State be afforded them. It is believed that the two and one-half hours' work that every student is required to perform on the farm or in the garden, besides serving to render him familiar with the use of implements and the principles of agriculture, is sufficient also to preserve habits of manual labor, and to foster a taste for agricultural pursuits. A similar view of the importance of practice in an art which combines manual skill with the application of scientific principles, was expressed by the late Charles O. Thompson, President of the Rose Polytechnic Institute, in his report for 1885. He says: Those who are actively engaged in the practice of engineering are generally agreed that every young man who is in training for an engineer should acquire familiarity with the practical side of his profession, especially that mechanical engineers should understand the use of tools and machinery. The acquirement of this manual dexterity may precede, accompany, or follow the training in engineering principles. In this school it accompanies it. In acquiring knowledge of any form of handicraft, or of the practical industries by which society is supported or carried on, it is essential that the student should practice under conditions like those that he will meet in actual life. The more his work is subjected to the inexorable tests of trade, the more he feels the same responsibility that rests on an actual workman, the more his shop training is worth. If the student's study of principles is supplemented by weekly practice in a shop where these principles are seen in action, his entrance upon the life of an engineer will be an expansion of his course of study, rather than an abrupt transition to a new mode of life. The important fact which underlies any sound scheme for school shops is that machinery is to have a constantly increasing share in the conversion of matter into useful form. The educated mechanic must understand the practical limits of mechanical production and all the possible ways in which those limits can be extended. He must know by practice how to design, construct, and assemble the parts of a machine, as well as how to finish its product by skillful handicraft, and he should also know how to make his tools. The power of an engineer to decide upon general grounds the best form and material for a machine, and to calculate its parts, is vastly increased by blending with it the skill of the craftsman in manipulating the material. And the graduate from such a course is practically secure of employment, even in dull times; for experience in a school' which has been conducted on this plan for sixteen years shows that such young men, in addition to securing the advantage of a good education, are as skillful mechanics as those who have served three years as apprentices. The same idea was carried out by President Thompson in the training at the Worcester Free Institute, as expressed in the catalogue for 1884: Special prominence is given to the element of practice which is required in every department. In favor of this feature of the training adopted at the Institute, there may be assigned the following reasons: 1. The fact that some of the most useful and sagacious manufacturers and business men, as well as many able educators, continually recur to the idea of combining manual labor with school instruction, shows the increasing demand for a closer union of theory and practice in technological training. 2. Those who are actively engaged in the practice of engineering, are generally agreed that every young man training for an engineer should acquire familiarity with the practical side of his profession. The acquirement of the manual dexterity, conceded by all to be desirable, may precede, accompany, or follow the technological training. 3. Most of the young men who have graduated from the school have readily found employment in situations for which their technical education particularly prepared them, and have proved themselves well fitted for their work. But while practice is made thus prominent, it is insisted that it should spring from a clear comprehension of principles. Practice is not an end, but a means and help to the best instruction. With this view of its relation to theoretical work in the school training, the student's entrance on the pursuit he has chosen becomes an expansion of his course of study, rather than an abrupt transition to a new sphere of life. In acquiring knowledge of any form of handicraft, or of the practical industries by which society is supported and carried on, it is essential that the student should practice under conditions as like as possible to those which he will meet in life. The more his work is subjected to the inexorable tests of trade, and the more he feels just the same responsibility that is inevitable in actual business, the better. For the acquisition of practical familiarity with different branches of applied science, the same facilities are offered as in the best schools of technology elsewhere; in mechanical engineering, shop practice is added to the course and incorporated in it. Practice in the school is subjected to three conditions: First, it shall be a necessary part of each week's work; secondly, it shall be judiciously distributed and constantly supervised; and, thirdly, the students shall not expect or receive any immediate pecuniary return for it. At the middle of the first year every student who has not already done so (under the advice of the instructors) chooses some department, and, until his graduation, devotes ten hours a week, and an additional month of each year, to practice in that department. Students who select chemistry, work in the laboratory; the civil engineers, at field work or problems in construction; those who select drawing, in the drawing room; and physics, in the physical laboratory. The mechanical engineers practice in the machine-shop from the beginning of the apprentice half-year, and their practice extends over the whole course of three and a half years. The Worcester Free Institute. |