college in the Western Hemisphere. For three years the college was
under private management. In 1862 the Congress of the United States,
recognizing the practical value and increasing need of such colleges,
passed the Land Grant Act. This Act granted each State and Ter-
ritory that should claim its benefits a proportionate amount of un-
claimed Western lands, in place of scrip, the proceeds from the sale
of which should apply under certain conditions to the "endowment,
support and maintenance of at least one college of which the leading
object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies,
and including military tactics, to each such branches of learning as
are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner as
the Legislatures of the State may respectively prescribe, in order to
promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes
in the several pursuits and professions of life." This grant was
accepted by the General Assembly of Maryland. The Maryland Agri-
-cultural College was named as the beneficiary of the grant. Thus the
college became, at least in part, a State institution. In the fall of
1914 its control was taken over entirely by the State. In 1916 the
General Assembly granted a new charter to the College and made it
the Maryland State College.

Under the new charter, which made the State College a university,
the institution is co-educational. Every power is granted necessary
to develop an institution of higher learning and research. This is in
full accord with the Morrill Act of the National Congress and the
subsequent acts above referred to. The charter provides that it shall
receive and administer all grants from the national government.

*
Extension and Research.

Agriculture and Home Economics.

The agricultural and home economics extension service of the Uni-
versity, in co-operation with the United States Department of Agri-
culture, carries to the people of the State through practical demon-
strations conducted by specialists of the College of Agriculture and
county agents, the results of investigations in the fields of Agricul-
ture and Home Economics. The organization consists of the adminis-
trative forces, including the director, assistant director, specialists
and clerical forces, including county agricultural demonstration agents,
and the home demonstration agents in each county and in the chief
cities of the State. The county agents and the specialists jointly carry
on practical demonstrations under the several projects in the produc-
tion of crops or in home-making, with the view of putting into prac-
tice on the farms of the State improved methods of Agriculture and
Home Economics that have stood the test of investigation, experimen-
tation, and experience. Movable schools are held in the several coun-
ties. At such schools the specialists discuss phases of Agriculture and
Home Economics in which the people of the respective counties are
specially interested.

The work of the Boys' Agricultural Clubs is of special importance
from an educational point of view. The specialists in charge of these
projects, in co-operation with the county agricultural agents and the
county school officers and teachers, organize the boys of the several
communities of the county into agricultural clubs for the purpose of
teaching them by actual practice the principles underlying agriculture.
The Home Economics specialists and agents organize the girls into
clubs for the purpose of instructing them in the principles underlying
canning, drying, preserving of fruits and vegetables, cooking, dress-
making and other forms of Home Economics work.