From this point of view one of the most noticeable and important features of the University of Wisconsin, and one that is thus far peculiar to it, is the system of farmers' institutes carried on by the University. These are an illustration of that striving that is everywhere manifest to secure a more vital connection between the people and the higher institutions of learning. Thus the professor of the science and art of teaching employs a portion of his time in giving lectures in connection with teachers' institutes. In this way the University does much to scatter its fruits abroad. The farmers' institutes are also notable as an agency for the direct propagation of the influence of the University beyond its own walls. They were begun in 1885, and are held every winter. At the eighty-one institutes held in as many different localities during the winter of 1887-88, there were about fifty who read papers or delivered lectures. Some of these were noted specialists from other States. The total attendance was probably fifty thousand. The institutes have been instrumental in broadening the view, in awakening thought, in instilling ideas. They have already accomplished great material as well as intellectual benefits. Farmers have learned to take advantage of opportunities and resources that before were ill-understood or entirely unknown. Altogether, with its practical lessons, its stimulating discussions, and its intellectual quickening, the institute is an educational agency of undoubted potency. These are the immediate results. But as regards the University a most valuable and permanent service of the institutes will be to bring the people of the State into close and friendly relations with their own University. Many who would otherwise have little or no interest in the institution are learning to appreciate its claims to generous recognition and support.

But the special significance and value of the teachers' institute lectureship and the farmers' institutes lie in the fact that through these instrumentalities the University is brought into close relations with the people and with the educational and material progress of the State. In two directions the University has thus taken the lead in the matter of University extension.

Recent Progress.-Several changes and new features were introduced during the year 1888. Among these were special local examinations for admission, to accommodate candidates who live at a distance; the development of a civic historical course antecedent to the study of law and journalism, and of a special science course antecedent to the study of medicine; the introduction of special courses for normal school graduates; the development of courses in Hebrew and Sanskrit; and the introduction of Spanish and Italian. The German seminary system has been introduced into several departments. The departments of original inves. tigation and of extra-collegiate education have received more distinct recognition and development. Two departments of the University are devoted almost exclusively to original research,-the Washburn Observatory and the Agricultural Experiment Station. An increasing

amount of original investigation is done in other departments in imme diate connection with instructional work. At least fifteen per cent. of the resources of the University will be devoted the coming year to this fundamental class of work. The publications of the Washburn Observ. atory and of the Agricultural Experiment Station are well known, and the latter, in particular, disseminates information of great interest and value. In two lines of extra-collegiate education, or "University extension," viz., the teachers' institute lectureship and the farmers' institute, the University is a successful pioneer.

The Hon. John Johnston, of Milwaukee, has endowed a fellowship on a financial basis of four hundred dollars per annum for two years. The Board of Regents have established eight fellowships, with an income of four hundred dollars a year each.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Butterfield's History of the University of Wisconsin.

To 1879. Contains biographical sketches of presidents and professors. Carpenter's Historical Sketch of the University of Wisconsin. To

1876.

Bascom's University of Wisconsin. Descriptive America, October,

1884.

Knight's History and Management of Land Grants for Education in the North-West Territory. Papers of the American Historical Association, Vol. I, No. 3.

Session Laws of Wisconsin, and various Revisions of the Statutes; also United States Statutes.

Charters, land grants, finances, etc., under various headings.

Annual Reports of Board of Regents (including Reports of President and Reports of Board of Visitors).

Annual Messages of the Governor.

Reports of Secretary of State.

Reports of Land Commissioners.

Reports of State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Reports of Commissioner of Education.

Annual Catalogues. General Catalogue, 1887.

Files of the Wisconsin Journal of Education. Also the local newspapers and the college papers.

Reports of State Agricultural Society.

These contain information and discussions concerning the Agricultural Department and the experimental farm.

Farmers' Institutes Bulletins.

The Great West. Paper by Charles Dudley Warner, Harper's Magazine, April, 1888.

Biographical sketches of professors and instructors may be found in the college "Annuals " ("Trochos," 1885, 1887; "Badger," 1388).

II.

BELOIT COLLEGE.

The course of migration in our country runs naturally from east to west on lines of latitude; there was thus a large infusion of New England elements in the stream of human life which first poured in to occupy the Territory of Wisconsin and northern Illinois. Puritan ideas of the home, the school, the church, and the college were transplanted and took root here with the first upturning of the prairie sod. They were especially cherished in the Congregational and Presbyterian churches organized. Hence, within ten years of the time when the Indian council fires were extinguished by the Black Hawk War, representatives of these churches were gathered in council, praying together and thinking on a college. These thoughts were deepened in conference with others at a convention of representatives of those two denominations from the north-western States, held at Cleveland, Ohio, in June, 1844. They became defined and matured in four successive conventions, held in that and the following year, for the specific purpose of considering what could be done for the promotion of higher education for Wisconsin and northern Illinois. These deliberations resulted in a unanimous judg ment of a convention which numbered sixty-eight members, that a college for young men, and a female seminary of the highest order for young women, should be established, one in Wisconsin and the other in Illinois, near to the border line of the two States. The college was located at Beloit, Wis.; the female seminary was subsequently located at Rockford, Ill. In October, 1845, the fourth convention adopted a form of charter, and elected a Board of Trustees, to whom was committed the charge of carrying forward the enterprise. Beloit was selected as the place for the college because it was central and easy of access to the population of the two States, and because the people of that village had already evinced an interest in the work of education by sustaining a seminary which offered facilities superior to any found elsewhere in the region.

The Charter.-On application, the Territorial Legislature of Wiscon. sin enacted a charter for the college, approved February 2, 1846, and printed on pages 103-4 of the Laws of Wisconsin for 1846. The corporate title is "The Board of Trustees of Beloit College." By the act of incorporation the Board of Trustees consists of sixteen members, with power to increase the number to twenty-four. Any seven constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. The Board elects new mem

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bers for no definite term of service, but failure for more than one year to attend to the duties of the trust may create a vacancy. The charter specifies no particular requirements for membership.

Of the sixteen original trustees, one-half were clergymen and onehalf laymen; one-half resident in Wisconsin and one-half in Illinois. The charter passes the administration of the college into the hands of the Board of Trustees, with broad general powers, subject to no direct supervision or control by the State or municipal authorities. The col lege is, however, always open to visitation, and, in accordance with a subsequent statute, a report of the condition of the institution is made annually to the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. The Congregational and Presbyterian churches of Wisconsin and northern Illinois are regarded as the proper constituency of the college; but the charter precludes the prescription of any religious tenets or opinions as qualifications required of instructors, or conditions of admission for students. Its aim is accordingly to give a Christian, but not a sectarian, education. The charter fixes the location of the college and all its departments in Beloit, and reserves to the Legislature full power to alter or repeal the act of incorporation. The Board of Trustees are empowered to confer on those whom they may deem worthy all such honors and degrees as are usually conferred by like institutions. The original charter has served the purpose of the college thus far without amendment or alteration.

The Object of the College.-The American college is an institution sui generis, developed by circumstances and conditions peculiar to this country. The founders of Beloit College had before them the type form, as presented in the colleges of the older States, especially in those of New England, and their aim was, not in servile imitation to copy a model, but as wisely as possible to adapt the leading ideas and features of those institutions to the fresh life and swift growth of the West. So the object of the institution they aimed to build was defined to be, to provide for the thorough, liberal, Christian education of young men ; edu cation being understood to mean chiefly a self-development of the individual under training to a true self-possession and a command of his best faculties. The design comprehends a training in language as the great instrument and condition of all culture, civilization, or thought; in mathematics and science, as means of both guiding the processes of investigation and thought, and furnishing the matter of learning; in the histories of nature and of man, as the sources of practical knowledge; and in those philosophic and moral principles necessary to complete the general preparation for a broad and useful life. Under the conviction that positive principles of religious faith are essential to right thought as well as to right life, the institution is intended to be a religious college-not denominational, but distinctly and earnestly evangelical. Its endeavor is to combine in its culture learning, religion, and morality, so as to form habits of thought, faith, and rectitude, which will best fit