An Act Transferring the Agricultural College in the Island of Negros from the Bureau of Education to that of Agriculture, and Making an Appropriation for the Establishing and Carrying on of Same and of an Experiment Station

November 10, 1902

ACT NO. 512

AN ACT TRANSFERRING THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE IN THE ISLAND OF NEGROS FROM THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION TO THAT OF AGRICULTURE, AND MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR THE ESTABLISHING AND CARRYING ON OF SAME AND OF AN EXPERIMENT STATION

SECTION 1. The Agricultural College, provision for the establishment of which was made by Act Numbered Seventy-four under the Bureau of Education, is hereby transferred to the Bureau of Agriculture. The college shall be situated upon the Government farm known as "La Granja Modelo," and said farm is hereby set aside for the use of the college and as an experiment station in connection therewith.

SECTION 2. The college and experiment station shall be under the general supervision and control of the Chief of the Bureau of Agriculture, who shall approve the plans for the construction of the necessary college and farm buildings, and select the sites for them.

SECTION 3. There shall be a director of the college and experiment station, who shall receive compensation at the rate of three thousand dollars per annum, in money of the United States. He shall be appointed by the Civil Governor, with the advice and consent of the Commission. Such subordinate officers, instructors, or employees of the college and experiment station as may hereafter be authorized shall be appointed by the Chief of the Bureau of Agriculture, subject to the approval of the Civil Governor.

SECTION 4. The director of the college and experiment station shall, subject to the approval of the Chief of the Bureau of Agriculture, fix the course of study, supervise the work and expenditures of the college and experiment station, and of all subordinate officers and employees, who shall be immediately responsible to him for their official acts and conduct. He shall formulate, subject to the approval of the Chief of the Bureau of Agriculture, plans for practical and experimental work in conjunction with the courses of study.

SECTION 5. The courses of study offered by the college shall include horticulture; farm management, including road building, drainage, and irrigation; animal industry; diseases of plants and animals useful to man; economic botany and entomology; chemistry; the English language; special courses upon important and practical subjects, including the culture and harvesting of important crops, and the breeding of domestic animals; and such other subjects as the director may deem advisable to introduce and the Chief of the Bureau of Agriculture may approve. EHaASD

SECTION 6. Instruction shall be given by officers or employees of the Bureau of Agriculture who may be designated for this purpose by the Chief of the Bureau of Agriculture; by officers or employees of the Bureau of Government Laboratories who may be designated for this purpose by the Superintendent of Government Laboratories at the request of the Chief of the Bureau of Agriculture; and by such instructors appointed by the Chief of the Bureau of Agriculture as may hereafter be authorized. All courses of study shall, so far as practicable, be accompanied by practical laboratory or farm work.

SECTION 7. Students shall be furnished instruction and lodging without charge, but shall pay for their board at a rate sufficient to cover the actual cost of the food furnished and of preparing and serving it. This rate shall be fixed by the director, subject to the approval of the Chief of the Bureau of Agriculture.

SECTION 8. The experiment station shall conduct investigations into the comparative advantages of rotating crops as pursued under varying series of crops; the capacity of new plants or trees for acclimatization; the comparative effects of manures and of different methods of cultivation on crops; the adoptation and value of grasses and forage plants; the food value of different kinds of food for domestic animals; the improvement of plants and animals by careful selection and breeding; and such other investigations bearing directly on the agricultural industry of the Islands as local conditions may warrant and the Chief of the Bureau of Agriculture may approve.

SECTION 9. There shall be an advisory board, consisting of the Chief of the Bureau of Agriculture and six members representing the agricultural interests of the Islands, who shall be appointed by the Civil Governor. This board shall meet annually at the college at the call of the Secretary of the Interior, for the purpose of investigating and reporting to the Secretary of the Interior upon the work of the college and experiment station, and of making such recommendations as it may deem advisable with reference to future work. Members of the board shall be allowed the actual and necessary cost of travel from their homes to La Carlota and return, together with subsistence and a per diem of five dollars, United States currency, per day, while proceeding to the place of meeting, attending the meeting, and returning therefrom. DaIAcC

SECTION 10. The director of the college and experiment station shall make quarterly reports of progress to the Chief of the Bureau of Agriculture, and on or before the thirtieth day of June of each year shall present a full and detailed report of all operations of the college and experiment station for the preceding twelve months, including a statement of receipts and expenditures, one copy of which shall be sent to the Chief of the Bureau of Agriculture and one to the Auditor for the Philippine Archipelago. The director of the college and station may also present to the Chief of the Bureau of Agriculture from time to time for publication, reports of results of experiments, or other matters of public interest which may be learned through researches carried on under his direction. All bulletins and reports prepared by the college or station shall be issued by and distributed through the Bureau of Agriculture.

SECTION 11. The sum of fifteen thousand dollars, in money of the United States, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated out of any funds in the Insular Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the construction of roads and buildings upon the La Carlota estate, for the purchase of draft animals and agricultural machinery, for the payment of such farm laborers as may be deemed necessary by the director and approved by the Chief of the Bureau of Agriculture, and for the contingent expenses of the college and experiment station for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and three. All funds appropriated for the college and experiment station shall be disbursed by the officer of the college or station who shall be designated for this purpose by the Civil Governor, as in other cases.

SECTION 12. The Chief of the Bureau of Agriculture shall prepare rules and regulations for the admission and matriculation of pupils in the Agricultural College, having in view the general intention to secure an attendance at the college of pupils from all provinces of the Archipelago. The regulations shall fix the age, and the moral, physical, and educational qualifications of those who may be matriculated. Each pupil who shall finish successfully the entire course of study prescribed as hereinbefore provided shall receive a diploma, signed by the director of the college, the Chief of the Bureau of Agriculture, and the Secretary of the Interior conferring the degree of Bachelor of Agriculture, to be abbreviated as "B. Agr." The rules and regulations may further provide for the issuing of certificates of proficiency by the director of the college and the Chief of the Bureau of Agriculture to those who shall have finished successfully special courses to be prescribed in said rules and regulations. The rules and regulations shall be approved by the Secretary of the Interior.

SECTION 13. Sections nineteen and twenty-four of Act Numbered Seventy-four, together with all other Acts or parts of Acts relating to the establishment of an agricultural school in the Island of Negros inconsistent herewith, are hereby repealed.

SECTION 14. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws" passed September twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred.

SECTION 15. This Act shall take effect on its passage.

ENACTED, November 10, 1902.