cant change in. the organization of the University occurred until 1920,
more than one hundred years after the original establishment in 1812.

The Maryland State College was chartered in 1856 under the name
of the Maryland Agricultural College, the second agricultural college in
the Western Hemisphere. For three years the College was under private
management. In 1862 the Congress of the United States passed the
Land Grant Act. This act granted each State and Territory that should
claim its benefits a proportionate amount of unclaimed Western lands,
in place of scrip, the proceeds from the sale of which should apply under
certain conditions to the "endowment, support, and maintenance of at
least one college where the 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 such a manner as the Legislature of the States may
respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical
education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and profes-
sions of life." This grant was accepted by the General Assembly of
Maryland, and the Maryland Agricultural College was named as the
beneficiary of the grant. Thus the College became, at least in part, a
State institution. In the fall of 1914 control was taken over entirely
by the State. In 1916 the General Assembly granted a new charter to
the College and made it the Maryland State College.

In 1920, by an act of the State Legislature, the University of Mary-
land was merged with the Maryland State College, and the name of
the latter was changed to the University of Maryland.

All the property formerly held by the old University of Maryland
was turned over to the Board of Trustees of the Maryland State Col-
lege, and the name was changed to the Board of Regents of the Uni-
versity of Maryland. Under this charter every power is granted nec-
essary to carry on an institution of higher learning and research. It
provides that the University shall receive and administer all existing
grants from the Federal Government for education and research and
all future grants which may come to the State from this source. The
University Is co-educational in all its branches.

Extension and Research.
Agriculture and Home Economics.

The Extension Service is that branch of the University of Mary-
land, established by Federal and State law, which designed to assist
the farmer and his family in promoting the prosperity and welfare of
agriculture and rural life. Its work is conducted in co-operation with
the United States Department of Agriculture.

The Extension Service is represented in each county of the State
by a county agent and in all but a few counties by a home demonstra-
tion agent. Through these agents and its staff of specialists, the Ex-
tension Service comes into intimate contact with rural people and
with the problems of the farm and home.

Practically every phase of agriculture and rural home life comes
within the scope of the work undertaken by the Extension Service.
Farmers are supplied with details of crop and livestock production, and
with instructions for controlling disease and insect pests; they are en-
couraged and aided in organized effort, helped with marketing prob-
lems, and in every way possible assisted in improving economic con-
ditions on the farm.

Rural women are likewise assisted in the problems of the home.
They are made acquainted with time and labor-saving devices, with
simpler and easier methods of work, with new knowledge of foods,
with new ideas about home furnishing, with practical methods of home