The Morrill Act of 1862 created land-grant colleges in each state and each state was eligible to receive 30,000 acres of federal land for each member of Congress the state had as of 1860. Proceeds from the sale of the land was used to fund the colleges. In New York it amounted to 990,000 acres of land, which it did not have, so the state was issued script that allowed the state to select land in other states. Ezra Cornell offered his farm in Ithaca and money as an initial endowment for Cornell University. Since the federal government did not own any federal land in New York State and since the state was prohibited from owning land in another state, Ezra Cornell agreed to purchase scrip for 500,000 acres of timberland in what is now Cornell, Wisconsin. The land was not sold for decades, which allowed the land to appreciate and added to the univeristy's endowment.