Morrill Land–Grant College Act

provided grants of land to state colleges, whose “leading object” would be to teach subjects “related to agriculture and the mechanic arts,” without excluding the general sciences and classical studies. It granted every state establishing such a college 30,000 acres of public land for each of its lawmakers in Congress. Since 1862 some 12 million acres have been distributed, on which some 70 of the so-called land-grant colleges currently flourish.