MEMORIAL.

To the Senate and General Assembly of New Jersey:

On the 4th of April, 1864, the Senate and General Assembly passed a law, repeatedly confirmed by subsequent legislation, constituting Rutgers Scientific School the State College for the Benefit of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts. To the College thus adopted by the State was assigned the income from the proceeds of the sale of lands granted to New Jersey by the United States. This income amounted to $6,960 annually.

By the terms of its gift Congress prohibited the use of this money for the purchase, erection, preservation or repair of any building or buildings. Accordingly the State required the College at its own expense to erect necessary buildings, to purchase an experimental farm, to provide adequate equipment and to furnish instruction free from cost of tuition, for forty students to be appointed by the County Superintendents of Public Schools.

with the Col

lege.

The law of 1864 further prescribed that the College The contract "shall contract with the State * * * to fulfill and perform all the duties and obligations imposed upon them by this Act." The State Board of Visitors, by the same law clothed with "general powers of supervision and control," periodically nominated by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate, and visiting the College twice each year, have uniformly certified in their annual reports that the Trustees of Rutgers College have "faithfully and liberally carried out their contract with the State."

On the 31st of March, 1890, the Senate and General Assembly passed an act which provided in the said State College a free scholarship from each Assembly district each

The Free Scholarship law of the 31st

of March, 1890.

The claim of the College.

year, for one student who should pass a competitive examination under the direction of the public school authorities in connection with the authorities of the College. The third section of this law enacted that "for each scholarship so held there shall be paid as hereinafter provided, on the first day of November in each year to the Treasurer of said College, the same sum of money as the said College is entitled to receive for each scholarship established in said College under the existing State Agricultural College fund; provided, that such payment shall be made only out of the income of the fund for the support of public free schools remaining after appropriations heretofore made payable out of said income are met."

The number of students certified as in attendance under this law being for the successive years, respectively, 25, 42, 80 and 91, there accordingly became due to the College from the State

Object of this memorial

The benefit of

the law to the

An aggregate amount of........................

On the 9th day of November, 1891, the Treasurer of the College received from the State Treasurer the sum of $1,500 on account. The remainder now due the College by the terms of the law, is therefore $39,912.

The sum of $1,500 is all that the State College has ever received from New Jersey for any purpose.

The object of this memorial is to present evidence of the value of the Free Scholarship law of 1890 after an experience of its operation for four years, and to ask the consideration of the Senate and General Assembly of this claim of the College, which has faithfully fulfilled its part of the duties imposed by the law.

The object of the act as stated in its title is, "to increase public school the efficiency of the public school system of the State." Students have applied for admission under the act from every county but one, to the number of 197, or an average

system.

of about 50 each year; of these, 136 were fitted in public schools, and of those who entered the College about 70 per centum came directly from the public schools, in which also many of the remainder received a part of their preparation. Proofs are multiplying that the school authorities welcome the aid which this law is surely bringing to them in their effort to raise the standard of requirements in many counties to that which some already maintain, and thus to co-ordinate and make uniform the school system, and to gain for New Jersey a fuller share of the recent advances in secondary instruction.

The uniform competitive examination throughout the State gives a common standard by which the schools may test themselves, and imparts a stimulus not only to those who take the examination but to the other pupils also, and to the teachers.

The value of this law is, however, most apparent in the boon which it has brought to individual pupils of those schools, poor in purse but bright and ambitious; the sons of farmers and mechanics and teachers and others throughout the State, who otherwise could not receive a higher training and who are proving excellent students in the College. But the prospective value of this law is vastly greater, for it is just coming to the knowledge of the people. The College has done its full part as determined by the law, and has, in addition to the costs of tuition of those students already admitted under the law and the further large amount of laboratory fees assumed by the College, involved itself in considerable expense in order to make the advantages offered familiar to all the citizens of the State. Before the competitive examination in each June, advertisements have been annually inserted in one or two papers in each county, and circulars have been sent to the school authorities. When the provisions of the law become fully known it is probable that the candidates for admission to the College each year will be in excess of the sixty to whom entrance is possible; in fact, last year there were sixty-four applicants.

The United States law of 1862 was enactod "to promote The general the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes movement "to

promote the

liberal and practical education of the industrial

classes," on the

States:

in the several pursuits and professions in life." In recent years a strong impulse has asserted itself to conform fully part of several to the spirit of this national law and to serve with zeal its objects. Many of the States of the Union have made appropriations, annual and special, or by a rating on assessed valuations, to their institutions, which are on a foundation similar to that of the State College of New Jersey. Cornell of New York; University bears the same relation to the State of New York that Rutgers Scientific School does to the State of New Jersey. The Governor of that State in his last two annual messages warmly commended that institution to the care of the Legislature, which responded with a large direct appropriation. The gifts of Pennsylvania to its State College amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars. The cost of the plant of that College was provided by appropriations from the State of $576,400. A majority of the States of the Union make annual appropriations ranging from $3,000 of other States. in Louisiana and New Hampshire to $33,000 in Kentucky, $65,000 in Minnesota, $84,000 in Ohio and $105,000 in Wisconsin. Many of these States add to these annual sums special appropriations, as special needs become manifest.

of Pennsylvania;

Some features

of the work of

tific School.

Rutgers Scientific School, with no direct aid from the Rutgers Scien- State, has moved forward with this general impulse in education in the last few years, and in some respects in advance of the general line, especially in those particulars that are made the object of special concern in the original United States law of 1862.

Extension teaching.

Three years ago it adopted the methods of Extension Teaching, by which scientific instruction of the best sort, in Agriculture, in Botany, in Astronomy, in Chemistry, in Electricity, in English and in other branches, has been brought in a systematic way near to the homes of the people by the Professors of the State College. This work of the Extension Department has been growing rapidly and steadily since its inception. During the last year the attendance at the various courses exceeded 1,300, and more than 600 were enrolled in the accompanying classes. It is probable that the number this winter throughout the State will be 2,000. Hundreds of farmers have attended the courses

in Agriculture, which are now offering to them at a merely nominal price. Florists and gardeners have studied Botany; operatives in the factory have followed the studies in Chemistry and in Electricity; public school teachers have attended the classes in English. The work is conducted in strict accordance with the methods of "University Extension." A course of lecture studies consists of the following elements:

(a) A series of lectures.

(b) A printed syllabus.

(c) A class-hour, or hour of conference, following each lecture.

(d) Written exercises by members of the class.

(e) An examination open to those who have taken the whole course.

(f) Certificates issued to successful students.

Every part of the work is voluntary. Many attend the lectures and do not enroll themselves as students, but all are encouraged to take the full course, since a far better knowledge of the subject can thus be obtained. Extension teaching under the auspices of the College as far as it has been carried in the two years of active work, embraces 10 counties; 15 extension centers or local associations for promoting the work; 18 separate localities and 26 courses, as appears in the following table:

The foregoing table does not include courses in prospect, for which detailed arrangements are now being completed.