On July 2, 1862, Abraham Lincoln signed Justin Morrill's second agriculture-school bill into law. Along with another measure he championed, in 1890, it created a system of land-grant colleges that rooted agriculture firmly in university research and helped democratize American higher education, creating institutions not for the sons and daughters of the upper classes but for the children of farmers. Morrill's vision was that land-grant colleges could teach students to "feed, clothe, and enlighten the great brotherhood of man." As land-grant-university officials prepare to visit Washington this month to celebrate their institutions on the National Mall during the Smithsonian Institution's annual folklife festival, they say that the agriculture colleges that are at the core of Morrill's mission are more popular with students than they have been in decades, and that the institutions' pathbreaking research and teaching are more critical than ever in a world facing huge population increases, climate change, and shortages of energy, water, and food. Students are crowding into agriculture colleges, but state-budget cuts mean that many of them are raising tuition and having to do more with less. Many deans are casting worried glances at institutions in India and China, which are investing heavily in higher education and in research.