Grants by the states themselves for the schools on a large scale have not been numerous. The state of Texas has set apart large tracts of public land for its institutions, the school for the deaf coming in for 100,000 acres as its share. The school in Michigan has received a number of sections of the state salt spring lands, amounting to 16,000 acres.[593]
Grants by Cities or Citizens
Small tracts of land have been donated in some cases by cities where the schools were to be established, sometimes accompanied by a cash donation as a further inducement for a particular location. Similar gifts have been made by individuals and corporations. These donations have occurred in about half of the states, but they have usually been small in size, most being of five or ten acres.[594]
FOOTNOTES:
[586] We have also seen how applications were made to Congress for the endowment of other schools.
[587] Stat. at Large, 1889, ch. 180. Washington was also admitted by this act, and there was a grant of 200,000 acres for "charitable, penal and reformatory institutions". The schools for the deaf and the blind, which were not mentioned by name, seem not to have shared in this grant.
[588] Similar amounts were allowed to the reform schools, the agricultural colleges and the universities.
[589] Stat. at Large, ch. 664. When Idaho was admitted the same year (ibid., ch. 656) 150,000 acres were granted to charitable, educational, penal and reformatory institutions, the school for the deaf not being directly mentioned.
[590] Ibid., 1894, ch. 138. Similar amounts were allowed for the school for the blind and other institutions. As the school in Utah is for both the deaf and the blind, it really has 200,000 acres.