The National Program to Microfilm Land-Grant Agricultural Documents

MILLIONS OF PAGES of agricultural or agriculture-related publications have been issued by U.S. land-grant institutions. Those ,published before 1970 will be more widely available as the result of a massive archival microfilming program undertaken cooperatively by the National Agricultural Library1 and the libraries of these institutions. A portion . has been completed and is available from various commercial vendors. The land-grant colleges and universities were born on July 2, 1862, when Abraham Lincoln signed what is commonly known as the Land-Grant College Act of 1862. Also known as the Morrill Act after its sponsor, Justin Smith Morrill, it allotted the states 30,000 acres of land from the public domain for each of their members of the Senate and of the House of Representatives. This land was to be sold to provide an endowment so that each state could establish "at least one college where th-e leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts . . in order to promote the liberal and