demic studies were combined with instruction and practice in various trades, household tasks, and agriculture. A regular agricultural course was not established until 1890. Much attention was paid to the training of teachers, and graduates of Hampton Institute went into many schools throughout the South. (Fig. 21.)

In 1872 the State of Virginia gave to Hampton Institute one-third of the interest on the land-grant fund established under the act of 1862, and after the passage of the Morrill Act of 1890 a similar share of that fund was given to this school. These funds, together with increasing amounts of money derived from private sources, enabled the institute to greatly expand its normal, industrial, and agricultural work.

In 1881 Booker T. Washington, who had studied at Hampton, opened the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, with the aid

of an appropriation of $2,000 from the Alabama Legislature. (Fig. 22.) This school was very successful, and had negroes as officers and teachers. It was incorporated in 1893, with a board of trustees largely composed of white persons, and was chiefly maintained with private funds, which came to it in increasing measure. The general plan of instruction was similar to that of the Hampton Institute. Considerable emphasis was laid on agricultural instruction,_and under the direction of George W. Carver, a graduate of the Iowa State College, considerable experimental work was undertaken. Tuskegee Institute did not, however, receive any share of the land grant or Morrill funds.

The influence of the Hampton and Tuskegee Institutes became great throughout the South, and the separate colleges for negroes established under the Morrill Act of 1890 largely followed their plan

of organization and work, as far as this was possible with the limited funds at the disposal of these State institutions. At least seven of the State colleges for negroes had their beginnings prior to 1890, but in only three of them were agricultural courses established before that time.

In 1903 the Office of Experiment Stations made a survey of the State colleges and schools for negroes which were receiving the benefits of the Morrill Act of 1890 (423). There were then 16 of these institutions in the Southern States, except Tennessee. They were all commonly called "land-grant" colleges, though only those in Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Virginia participated in the benefits of the act of 1862 by receiving annually a portion of the interest on the land-grant fund.

The total revenue of the colored institutions in the fiscal year 1902-3 was $537,738.45. Of this amount $205,554.94 was received from the Federal Government, $159,264 from the States, and $172,919.51 from fees and other sources. The largest revenue ($194,046.96) was received by Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, and the smallest ($9,005.49) by the Delaware State College for Colored Students. The average total income per student was $88; that of the white colleges was $173-nearly twice as much.

The equipment of these institutions is valued at nearly $2,000,000, of which 67 per cent is represented by buildings. The approximate total value of farms and grounds is $300,000; of apparatus, $41,400; of machinery, $83,300; of libraries, $30,400, and of live stock, $27,600. More than half of the live stock is owned by one institution-the Hampton Institute. That these institutions are gaining in wealth is shown by the fact that more than 8 per cent of their total equipment has been added during the past fiscal year.

The total number of students in the colleges and schools for negroes in 1902-3 was 6,080; the number of graduates, 422; the number of degrees conferred, 119; the number of instructors, 346.

The statistics show that 71 per cent of the students in the negro institutions were in the preparatory courses and only 12 per cent in the collegiate courses.

But of the graduates of these institutions only 28 per cent received bachelors' degrees, and, furthermore, 269 (nearly 36 per cent) of the students reported as being in collegiate courses were in attendance at an institution which is admittedly a secondary school and grants no degrees; so it is safe to assume that not more than three or four per cent of the students in the land-grant colleges for negroes were in the four-year courses leading to bachelors' degrees. This, in itself, is not to be taken as an unfavorable criticism of the institutions, except in so far as the figures are slightly misleading, for it is known that much of the most useful work done by them is done in the secondary and special courses; but it is an indication of the grade of instruction that must be provided for nearly all of the people served in these colleges and schools (423).

All but one of these institutions were teaching agriculture, and more than one-fourth of their students were taking agricultural courses of some sort. In most of them, however, the agricultural work was in poorer condition than the industrial and academic work. Agricultural manuals and textbooks were comparatively few and often antiquated. Only two or three of these institutions had any laboratory equipment for teaching agriculture. Those that had farms with thoroughly modern equipment and were practicing diversified farming were the exceptions.

There were some good teachers of agriculture, but too often they were either farmers without special training or aptitude for teaching or they were men who had received theoretical instruction in northern colleges and were too scientific and impractical, not knowing how to adapt their instruction to the conditions existing in these southern schools.

Part of the weakness of the agricultural work of these schools was due to white men on their boards of trustees, who either had no real sympathy with vocational education or thought that negro students needed only ordinary negro farmers to instruct them in agriculture. Under such circumstances the negro boys, if allowed freedom of choice, avoided the agricultural course and took instruction in wood or iron working, tailoring, and other trades. They had also a powerful incentive to such a course in the fact that men skilled in the trades could immediately earn much better wages than farm laborers.

Some progress was made during the 10 years following 1903 in improving the equipment and the courses of instruction in agriculture in most of these institutions, but the number of agricultural students fluctuated considerably from year to year and did not materially increase at any time during this period.

In 1905, of a total of 6,294 students in the negro land-grant institutions 1,624 were in agricultural courses, and in 1912, of a total of 8,495 students 2,173 were in agricultural courses. Seven of these institutions in 1912 had from 8 to 58 agricultural students, four had from 100 to 181, and five from 200 to 413. That year the total number of collegiate students claimed by all these institutions was 1,544, but without doubt most of these were actually pursuing courses little if any above secondary grade. Seven institutions were giving instruction in agriculture to teachers through summer schools or special courses. The Hampton and Tuskegee Institutes began to do extension work at an early day and some of the other institutions attempted this in a small way.

After 1915 interest in these institutions grew rapidly in the Southern States and they were greatly strengthened by increased State appropriations, which in 1925 aggregated $1,455,260. The value of

their buildings and equipment rose from about $2,500,000 in 1914 to nearly $8,000,000 in 1925. Fifteen of these colleges were made headquarters for the Smith-Lever extension work for negroes and 16 received Smith-Hughes funds for the training of teachers of vocational subjects. Of their 586 teachers in 1925, 323 were college graduates. Including their summer schools, their students that year numbered 13,690, of whom 4,047 were in secondary work and 2,169 in collegiate courses. In vocational agricultural courses there were 579 students and in teacher-training courses in agriculture 203 students. An association of negro land-grant colleges had been formed, which, in cooperation with the Bureau of Education, was working toward the standardization of courses and the improvement of teaching.

Part 6. ENLARGED SCOPE OF WORK OF AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES, 1915-1925

THE SMITH-LEVER EXTENSION ACT

The Smith-Lever Cooperative Extension Act not only greatly increased the extension work of the State agricultural colleges but it also fundamentally changed their relations with the Federal Government and with the rural communities throughout the States. In its title and in its terms this act provides definitely for close cooperation between the State colleges and the United States Department of Agriculture. The nature of the work and the cooperation contemplated are clearly set forth in the act as follows:

That cooperative agricultural extension work shall consist of the giving of instruction and practical demonstrations in agriculture and home economics to persons not attending or resident in said colleges in the several communities, and imparting to such persons information on said subjects through field demonstrations, publications, and otherwise; and this work shall be carried on in such manner as may be mutually agreed upon by the Secretary of Agriculture and the State agricultural college or colleges receiving the benefits of this act.

Ten thousand dollars annually are appropriated to each State accepting the provisions of the act and additional sums in proportion to the State's relative rural population out of lump-sum appropriations from the Federal Treasury, beginning with $600,000 in 1915 and increasing by $500,000 annually for seven years, after which this additional fund is annually to be $4,100,000. But the State will receive only so much of its annual allotment from this additional fund as is offset by sums derived from sources within the State.

The act was passed with the understanding that the county-agent system involved in the farmers' cooperative demonstration work and farm-management work carried on previously by the Department of Agriculture would be incorporated in the Smith-Lever extension work. For this reason the act permitted contributions by counties, local authorities, or individuals, as well as by States and colleges, to be used to offset Federal funds granted for extension work. The agricultural colleges were thus obligated not only to extend their instructional operations throughout the State but also to establish centers for such instruction in the counties, at least as far as cooperative funds were provided from county sources. The Smith-Lever extension system is thus radically different from the ordinary "university" extension work. It contemplates close local union of rural communities with the college and the actual permanent functioning of the college in these communities throughout the State.

To provide a practical plan for cooperation between the colleges and the Department of Agriculture in carrying on work under the Smith-Lever Act a "Memorandum of Understanding" was signed by the Secretary of Agriculture and the college presidents in 46 States, and a similar understanding was reached more informally