The United States Department of Education says there are more than 2,400 Ame

The United States Department of Education says there are more than 2,400 American colleges and universities. About 100 of these four-year schools began as public (36) agricultural colleges, and continue to teach agriculture. They are called land (37) grant colleges or universities. Federal land grants supported the building of most of the (38) major state universities in the United States.
    The idea of the land grant college was (39) developed more than 100 years ago by Congressman Justin Smith Morrill of Vermont. In 1862,he wrote (40) legislation to create such a college in each state.
    The name land grant came from the kind of (41) aid provided by the federal government. It gave each state thousands of hectares of land. The money (42) earned by the land was to be used to support the college.
    The (43) federal government wanted people in each state to learn better ways to farm. Mr. Morrill and others (44) saw a need for universities to teach agriculture science to improve what was then an important national industry. A later law helped agricultural colleges develop new ideas in farm science. (45) It created an agriculture experiment center at each land grant college to help farmers solve problems.
    One land grant school is the Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pennsylvania. About 4,000 students from other countries now attend Penn State. It costs between 28,000 and 34,000 dollars a year to attend. (46) Officials say it is possible for graduate students to get financial aid by working for the university as a teaching or research assistant.