Until 1895 the university lands were administered by the general land office, and their administration was characterized by the merits and shortcomings of the public land legislation and administration up to that time. The regents of the University recommended as early as 1886 that they should be given the control and management of the lands belonging to the University, but this was not done until 1895.1

The fifty leagues of land granted to the University in 1839 were surveyed to the amount of 226,122 acres in Callahan, Collins, Cooke, Fannin, Grayson, Hunt, Lamar, McLennan and Shackelford counties. There were conflicts of surveys in the case of 21,762 acres of these lands, and the University lost thereby over 7,022 acres in McLennan County and 8,022 acres in Grayson County, and the loss in the latter case has not been made good by the state.2 Sales of the land received from this grant began before the Civil War, and by 1888 there were only 14,148 acres unsold.3 By 1899 only 5,095 acres were unsold, and it was believed that the title had been lost to most of these.4

The western lands, or those surveyed for the University under the acts of 1879 and 1883, are situated in the western and southwestern parts of the state. On account of their quality and the deficiency in rainfall, they are fit only for grazing. Of the more than two million acres of the western lands of the University only one sale of 640 acres has ever been perfected. It has been the policy of the board of regents not to sell the western lands but to lease them for grazing purposes until they are more valuable. The greatest number of acres under lease before 1895 was 685,280 in 1892. By 1898, as a result mainly of the efforts of the land agent of the University, the number of acres under lease rose to 1.384,632, and the annual rental amounted to $40,408, as compared with $17,186 in 1892-3. On August 31, 1915, there were 2,067,105 acres under lease at from two and a half to fifteen cents an acre, and the amount received from leases during 1915 was $169,057. Also on August 31, 1915, the permanent university fund held land notes to the amount of $26,572.77, and the annual interest on the notes amounted to $1,135.16.1

1 Report of the Board of Regents, 1886, p. 22. Laws of 1895, p. 19. Rev. Civil Stats., 1911, arts. 2633-2634.

2 Report of the Board of Regents, 1888, p. 6; 1892, p. 7. Lane, History of Education in Texas, p. 138. Laws of 1897, p. 265.

3 Report of the Board of Regents, 1888, p. 6.

4 Report of the Board of Regents, 1899, p. 42.

It can never cease to be a source of regret to the friends of higher education in Texas that the framers of the Constitution of 1876 took away from the University the land appropriation made in 1858 and substituted therefor one million acres of western lands. The grant made in 1858 of one section for every ten granted to railroads would have been a princely endowment, and would have amounted, it has been estimated, to not less than 1,600,000 acres in 1886, worth at least $8,000,000.2 The present western land endowment of over 2,000,000 acres is worth as grazing land not more than $3,000,000.3