A land grant is a gift of land made by the government for projects such as roads, railroads, or especially academic institutions. In the past (the 1700s), they were given for the purpose of establishing settlements, missions, and farms. During the 1800s, four out of five of the transcontinental railroads in the United States were built using land grants, as was the Canadian Pacific Railway. Regarding academia, the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890 have given nearly 100 U.S. colleges and universities acres of public land, which in turn were sold by the institutions and the proceeds placed into endowment funds to provide them financial support in creating and sustaining agricultural and mechanical academic programs.
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