The University is both State and National in its origin and character. The public movement which gave rise to this University, began a quarter of a century ago. Public meetings of the friends of industrial education were held in all parts of the State, and numerous petitions, signed by thousands of the agricultulists and other industrial classes, flooded the State Legislature. At length, in 1856, the General Assembly adopted joint resolutions, asking Congress to make grants of public lands to establish colleges for industrial education. After long discussions, Congress passed the necessary law in July, 1862, making the magnificent grant of public lands out of which has arisen that long list of Agricultural Colleges and Industrial Universities now scattered over the Continent. Illinois, the first to ask, was among the first to accept the grant, and great public interest was excited in the question of the organization and location. Princely donations, in some cases of half a million of dollars, were tendered by several counties to secure the locating of the institution in their midst. In February, 1867, a law was passed fixing the locality, and defining the plan of the University, and in May the board of trustees met at the University Building donated by Champaign county, and finally determined the location. During the year much of Vol. IV-64 the scrip was sold or located, necessary alterations were made in the buildings, apparatus and library were purchased, a faculty partly selected, and preparations made for active work. On March 2d, 1868, the University was opened for students, and on the 11th formal inauguration exercises were held. In the Autumn of 1871 the University was opened for the instruction of female students, and now it offers its advantages to all classes of society, without regard to sex, sect or condition. LOCATION. The University is situated in the city of Urbana, adjoining the limits of the city of Champaign, in Champaign county, Illinois. It is 128 miles from Chicago, on the Illinois Central Railroad. The Indianapolis, Bloomington and Western Railway passes near the grounds. The county is one of the most beautiful prairie regions in the West. The two contiguous cities, constituting really only one community, have together a population of nearly 10,000, well supplied with churches and schools, and affording boarding facilities for a large body of students. BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS. The domain occupied by the University, (see map of the grounds on opposite page), embraces about 623 acres, including stock farm, experimental farm, orchards, gardens, nurseries, forest plantations, arboretum, botanic garden, ornamental grounds and military parade ground. The old University Building, (A,) now occupied partly by class rooms, library and laboratory, contains some seventy dormitories for students. It is 125 feet in length and five stories in hight, with a wing of 40 by 80 feet, four stories in hight. This building was donated by the county. library and various cabinets and museums. The chapel wing affords a large physical laboratory and lecture room, and spacious draughting In the main part are thirty class rooms of good size, and also cloak and wash rooms for both sexes, store rooms, and several large rooms. halls for students' literary societies. This building will be occupied in September next. nished for practical use with a steam engine, lathes and other machinery; a pattern and finishing shop; shops for carpentry and cabinet work furnished with wood-working machinery; paint, printing and draughting rooms, and rooms for models, storage, etc. In the second story is the large Drill Hall, 120 by 80 feet, suf ficient for the evolutions of a company of infantry, or a section of a battery of field artillery. One of the towers contains an armorer's shop and military model room, an artillery room and a band room. The green house, (see map B,) is 70 feet by 36, and contains potting, seed and furnace rooms. There are two other green houses; one 12 feet by 35, the other 22 by 10. signed to afford a model for a farmer's house. It is tasteful in appearance, economical in cost, and compact and convenient in arrangement and detail. (See map H). A cellar under the whole, walled with hard brick and having a cement floor, affords a laundry, a large cistern, and an ample cellar in two compartments, one for dairy uses, and the other for CL vegetables. The front door is sheltered by a pleasant verandah and the front hall or entry affords direct admission to office, parlor and kitchen. The office, a small room, which the intelligent farmer will find abundantly useful for his business affairs, will also serve as a library and CHAMBER 15' x 10' CL. CHAMBER. CHAMBER CHAMBER 10'5"X10'6" CL. CL. Second Floor. CHAMBER 18'8X123 CL. BED ROOM KITCHEN 15'3 x18'3" OFFICE lo'xit' a" PARLOR First Floor of Farm House. PANTRY 4'9'x7' reading room on wet days, and the evenings. The parlor is a commodious apartment, which is rendered doubly pleasant by the bay window. The kitchen is also of good size, as many farmers' families make this the "living room," as they call it, where the cooking and eating are both done, and the family work goes on. A lean-to, serving as a summer kitchen and well-room, has been added since the building was first erected. The second floor has a goodly num ber of sleeping rooms, all but two supplied with closets. The barn recently erected on the Stock Farm of the Industrial Uni |