Land Grants

Land Grants

Morrill Act

• On July 2, 1862, President Lincoln signed the Morrill Act, which led to the establishment of land-grant universities.

• Under the Morrill Act, the federal government designated land for sale in each state, 30,000 acres for each of the state’s U.S. House representatives. That’s the “land-grant” in “land-grant university.”

Land Grant Universities

• The Morrill Act universities were established to teach agricultural and mechanical arts, as well as military science.

• In North Carolina, the law birthed the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (now NC State). A second Morrill Act in 1890 led to the establishment of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.

Multiple Select

Land Grants were started to teach all of the following (check those that apply)

• agricultural

• mechanical arts

• military science

• food and chef services

HATCH ACT OF 1887

• The Hatch Act of 1887 gave federal funds, initially of $15,000 each, to state land-grant colleges in order to create a series of agricultural experiment stations.

• NCSU has research stations all over NC, studying livestock nutrition, seed efficiency, agricultural chemicals, etc.

Land Grants in the Southeast US

To name a few,

•North Carolina A&T (1890) Greensboro, NC

•North Carolina State University (1887) Raleigh, NC

•Clemson University (1889) Clemson, SC

•University of Georgia (1785) Athens, GA

•University of Tennessee (1794) Knoxville, TN

•Virginia Tech. University (1872) Blacksburg, VA