It will be seen that a balance remains unprovided for of $10,697.46.
By borrowing a portion of the annual appropriation for the support of the institution, the board have been able to avoid the necessity of paying interest on this balance of indebtedness, except for a few days at the end of the decal year. This is, however, an arrangement which ought not to continue indefinitely. The board had hoped to be able to raise by private subscription an amount sufficient to liquidate this small debt; but the fact that the title to all the real estate of the institution has been vested in the United States is likely to stand in the way of the realization of this expectation; for private parties object, when called upon, that they should not be asked to aid what has practically become a Government institution.
We have submitted no estimate to provide for this balance, but we venture to direct the attention of Congress to the fact of the indebtedness, and to ask if it would not be proper that an appropriation should be made.
The importance of securing, at the low price paid, so valuable an estate as Kendall Green can hardly be overestimated, and we are sure that no one who considers the present and prospective value of the property will fail to perceive the great advantages likely to grow out of its acquisition by the Government.
ESTIMATES FOR NEXT YEAR.
The following estimates of appropriations required for the service of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1875, have already been submitted:
For the support of the institution, including salaries and incidental expenses, and $500 for books and illustrative apparatus, $49,500.
For continuing the work on the erection, furnishing and iitting up of the buildings of the institution, in accordance with plans heretofore submitted to Congress, including necessary repairs ou the completed sections of the buildings, $54,000.
The estimate for building purposes is greatly needed, to enable us to proceed with the work of completing the college-building, and to provide for the erection of two professors' houses.
The college-building has stood in an incomplete condition for nearly seven years. Until within the last two years the completed portion sufficed for the accommodation of our collegiate department.
It is now, however, much crowded, and no possibility exists of conveniently accommodating more students, while we have reason to expect increased numbers of applications for admission during several years to come.
Only two rooms in the college-building can be used for recitations, and we are compelled to conduct our class-room exercises in corners of the chapel-hall and in other places temporarily arranged in the central building, allot which are inconvenient and ill adapted for the purposes to which we are compelled to devote them.
The rooms available for students dormitories ought not to be made to contain more than twenty-five students, while the number at present occupying them is forty-seven.
The interests of the institution make it very desirable that its officers and employes should reside on the premises. The plans submitted to Congress in our ninth report, that for the year 1866–'67, showed our need of erecting, ultimately, six dwelling-houses for the officers of the institution.
Of this number only two have thus far been built. Two more are
