With these subsidies it is proposed to erect immediately another College building between the two present structures, to cost $40,000, and a large addition to the Girls’ Dormitory, which will include a dining-room capable of seating 300 pupils. The estimated cost of this improvement is $15,000.
The library of the Institute comprises 4,000 volumes, most of them excellent selections, with a balance on hand in cash of $700 for further augmentation, derived from the interest on the permanent library endowment, which is $5,000.
It will be seen from the above that the Atlanta University is on the high-road to prosperity.
TALLADEGA COLLEGE.
The College, Farm, and Theological Seminary.
REV. TEMPLE CUTLER.
Talladega is beautifully situated among the hills of Alabama. It reminds one somewhat of Andover, Mass., only the hill on which the college stands is not as high. There is, however, the same outline of mountains in the distance, and the same soft light falling on the village nestling below, hidden among the rich foliage of trees. Talladega is by far the prettiest site for a college that I have seen in the South. Nature has done her part in fitting up the place for purposes of instruction. There is every incentive to mental improvement that nature can afford. If man will do his part, we may expect to find here one of the most important of those springs which are sending forth streams of moral and mental influence through all the wastes of this south country.
A week spent here has been exceedingly enjoyable. The teachers are an agreeable set of finely educated gentlemen and ladies, who spare no pains to make one’s stay a pleasant one. The hospitality is not made burdensome either to host or guest, but one quietly falls into the routine of life, and feels immediately at home.
There is a farm here of about 180 acres of land, most of which is under cultivation, called the Winsted Farm. This is being rapidly reclaimed from the waste of former mismanagement. The difference between Northern and Southern agriculturists is, that the land is improved under the former management, and wasted under the latter. In New England it is a sure sign of shiftless husbandry when the land runs out year by year. In the South there are but few farms or plantations that are not becoming poorer every year. The effort is begun on this farm to restore fertility, and in a few years we may expect to see a fine specimen of Northern enterprise in the products of its hitherto barren acres. The students work the farm in part payment for their education. How far this industrial department is going to succeed financially is a question that must wait for an answer. It is easy to theorize about the advantages of such a measure, but the surest proof that the pudding is good is found in the eating of it. One thing is certain: four or five hours a day of work in the hot sun does not fit a young man to bone down to real hard study. It takes a good deal of the remainder of the day to get rested and ready for work. It sounds pretty to talk about a man’s catching up his book between works, and so using up the odds and ends of time, a la Elihu Burritt; but unfortunately there are not a great many Elihu Burritts left, and I am afraid they are not indigenous to this climate, nor found among boys and girls in these schools. It is a question whether we can afford to run a farm and school together. The drain on both the treasury of the college and the physical powers of the student must be taken into our calculations.