University of Nebraska Lincoln - Cornhusker Yearbook (Lincoln, NE)

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alirit anil ?fuui 29 As said above, there were at tirst two colleges, — Agriculture and L ' .ngiucer- ing,— where we now have the Imlustrial College. These were tuiiied in 1S7S. and before that time we had a regular College of Agriculture, wiih a dean i Thmnp- son) and several professors, i ' he first agiicultural students appeared in 1874, reachuig fifteen that year, and from that time to the present there have been stu- dents in agriculture. It is interesting to note that about thirty years ago the pres- ent Governor of Cuba (Hon. C. E. Magoon) was a student in the College of Agri- culture. In those early days there were more students in agricultiu ' e than in engineering: in fact, it was not until 1879 that any record occurs of engineering students. In the early days there was much prejudice against the Farm. It was almost inaccessible in muddy weather, and when reached it was an unattractive place. Few people ever visited it, and those who did generally denounced its manage- ment. There were many in and out of the University who advocated selling it outright. A prominent Nebraska daily paper called it a rat hole down which the people ' s money was being poured by the Regents. At one time a bill was pushed almost through the legislature providing for its sale, but fortunately at the last moment it was defeated, and from that date the Farm has taken on greater importance. It has become the prettiest place in the neighborhood of Lincoln, and ever body now takes his friends out to see it ; students like to have picnics there ; and alumni gather there annually to celebrate the days of long ago. There is no jeering now-a-days about the Farm. It is the most popular part of the Cni- versity, so far as the public is concerned. The School of Agriculture, which now annually enrolls about six hundred students in all, is the outgrowth of plans laid long ago in tlic early ears of the Universitv ' s history. It took long years of hard work to build up a jiopular school, but at last it is a firmly established part of the University. What Chancellor Ren- ton planned for more than thirty years ago has now become a reality through Chancellor Andrews ' insistence. And while all this growth in agriculture has been going - n, the engineer- ing side of the College has had an equally remarkable development. Little and Bobbv Owens worked hard in the early da s to build up a school of engineer- ing, and later were joined by Richards, Brooks, and Alorse. In 1891 the shops came, six years later Mechanic Arts Hall was built, and now we are to build a great Engineering Hall. There are today nearly six hundred engineering stu- dents on the campus where thirty years ago there were none. Looking at these two lines of development in the Industrial College one is moved to question whether the time is not near when it v ill be well to go back to the original charter, and restore the College of Agriculture, and the College of Etigineering. There is today very little if any connection between the two lines of work, and thev might as well be separated, as they were in the first charter of the Universitv. Another change, also, may soon be timely. In the development of the Industrial College it was necessary about twenty years ago to transfer the scientific course of study from the College of Literature, Science and .A,rt to the Industrial College. There it served its purpose, and helped to build up courses which were strong in the sciences and their applications. Perhaps we should re- store the scientific course to the college where it originated. This has been dis-

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I MECHANIC ARTS MALL MEMOfTIAL HALL HK ACK HALL CHEMI iTKV HI ILUING

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SCHOOL OK MLSIL THE TEMPLE EXPEKIMENT BLILDING AT STATE FARM WOMAN ' S DORMITORY AT STATE FARM