EDUCATION IN KANSAS. 59

In this College, Agriculture is taught as a science and by practical
operations. A lot of eighty acres of excellent land has been enclosed
with a handsome stone fence, and a beginning made both in agricul-
ture and horticulture. In time this will be very beautiful as well as
useful. It is not, however, what is called a manual labor institution.
An agriculturist is to be engaged, under whose supervision the opera-
tions of this department will be carried on. To the President, Rev.
J. Denison, D.D., and Professor B. F. Mudge, from whose report as
State Geologist I drew largely in speaking of the mineral resources
of Kansas, I am under many obligations for hospitality and kind
attentions while at their beautiful place.

President Denison, in his report, makes a few general remarks upon
the progress of Kansas, which I take the liberty to copy as exactly
pertinent to my object in making these brief notices:

“We already have a number of students from the counties west of
this point. The pulsations through the great artery of travel to the
Rocky Mountains and Santa Fé are already felt in the rapid increase
of settlers in these counties. The cars of the Union Pacific Railway,
H. D., will run to Salina, seventy miles west of this, by next spring,
and soon to the western limit of the State. The benefits of this thor-
oughfare of travel to the State are almost incalculable; its cost to
the State is very little. So much the more, then, can the State afford
to apply a portion of its increasing means to the development of its
institutions of learning. To the myriads of settlers that are coming
on this thoroughfare, and those pouring into its northern and southern
borders, the State cannot afford to refuse the means of education, or
be slow or parsimonious in providing the means for them.”

This college is less than twenty miles this side of Fort Riley. By
act of Congress it has an endowment of ninety thousand acres of land.

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS,

This is a new institution, the first session having opened September
12, 1866. It has an endowment of forty-six thousand acres. The
College edifice, which stands on a commanding eminence overlooking
the city of Lawrence, is a handsome stone building. I regretted that
I did not reach Lawrence on my return trip until the day after the
commencement exercises had closed; but the citizens spoke in glow-
ing terms of the manner in which the Faculty had discharged their
duties and led their students forward in sound learning. This insti-
tution places both sexes, so far as education is concerned, on an
equality. On this point President Rice, in his report, remarks:
“This, without doubt, is both just and expedient. It is no small
honor that the Mediterranean State should be the first to recognize
the rights of woman in her edugational system.”