Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1884 [PAGE 66]

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70 Let us, however, put this matter upon an entirely broader and higher basis. Let us be a party to no petty wrangling about- the sums referred to. If there were no such moneys in the State treasury, still the duty of the grand State of Illinois would be to support a State University which should be worthy of the name, and an honor to the Empire State of the Mississippi Valley. If Illinois were small in area; if her population were sparse and poor; if her native resources were meager; if she had been seared and scarred by war, and afterward plundered by thieves; if she had seen a vast amount of the property which she had been trained to believe her own, vanish as at the lightning's flash; if, in short, she were in the plight of some of her Southern sisters in the galaxy of States, one might pardon her for seeking to avoid every possible burden. • But what is Illinois? What does she possess! I can not attempt to answer fully—but a few items will suggest still more. She had a population, in 1880, of 3,077,871, which made her the fourth State in the Union, in that respect, and surpassed only by New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio. She has a territory of 55,405 square miles, equal to 35,459,200 acres. Of this land 31.673,645 acres are included in farms, and 26,115,154 acres were improved, leaving 5,558,491 acres yet to be improved. The number of acres of improved land in 1870, were 10,329,952, so that the number of acres brought into subjection during the last decade was 15,785,202. The value of the farms as reported in 1880 was 1,009,594,580 dollars, and the aggregate wealth of the State is not less than 2,000 millions of dollars. The farm products of 1879 were as follows: Acres of corn 9,019,381 Bushels of corn 325,792,481 Acres of wheat 3,218,542 Bushels of w h e a t . . . . 51,110,502 Acres of other grain.... 2,223,741 Bushels of oats 63,189,200 — Other grain 4,530,167 Total acres in grain.. 14,461,664 Total bushels grain.444,622,350 Number of horses and mules cattle .... sheep swine Total of farm a n i m a l s . . . . . . 1,146,360 2,484,322 1,037,073 5,170,266 .9,848,021

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The aggregates expressed by these figures are too great for our apprehension. If the farmers of Illinois would permit the University to choose one fair ear of corn, or its equivalent, from each acre of land in corn or grain in the State, the proceeds would more than twice pay the present annual expense of this institution. If the State would collect and pay annually into the treasury 1-100 of one per cent, of the cash value of the property of the State, this University would need no other* endowment; and might safely rely on the natural in-