THE THREE-LEGGED STOOL

Some old-time dairy farmers from years ago can talk about the three-legged milking stool that allowed them to get close to the cows udder when they milked.   So, it is not surprising that there are also the three legs to the history of agriculture- education, research, and extension.  In previous blogs, I have covered both the educational side relative to the history of the Land Grant System, and the emergence of the Extension system.  These can be reviewed at www.whatceresmightsay.blogspot.com.  This blog posting reviews briefly the other aspect of the three-legged stool, research and the agricultural experiment stations.

 

BRIEF HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF THE CREATION OF AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS IN THE U.S.:

The work of the more than 600 main Agricultural Experiment Stations and their branch stations across the United States has been tremendous and addresses a range of issues related to agriculture and the environment.  Research, being part of the Land Grant System and the Extension Service, is often called the “three-legged stool” of research, teaching, and education.  The pieces of the so-called stool were put together at different times in our history.  The first being the creation of the Land Grant College Act in 1862, followed by the Hatch Act of 1887, and finally the Smith Lever Act of 1914, with various amendments being added to these laws over the years.

 

Agricultural Research Beginning:

By all accounts, the need for directed agricultural research came from early European models. The first is said to have been in England in 1843.  It was followed in 1851 by a band of German farmers in 1851.  It was under the leadership of Dr. Samuel Johnson, then a professor of Chemistry at Yale, who went to Germany in 1853 to study their research system that the idea and energy for such system was established in the U.S., but it did not quickly begin according to history. The U.S. was an agrarian society in the beginning, and the records from that time indicate that even George Washington, a farmer himself, and a member of the first agricultural society in the U.S. in Philadelphia, advocated in his first address to the then seat of Government, indicated the need for a national board of agriculture.  He said, “that he would rather be on my farm than be emperor of the world.” Other national leaders of the time were farmers too unlike what exists in the national and even state policy making environment today.

 

Influence of Land Grant Act and helping to forge the future of Experiment Stations.

According to records, the funds from the sale of land scrips from the Land Grant Act to the State of Connecticut (each state received scrips for the sale of 30,000 acres of Western native American land for each member of Congress from the state) went to the Sheffield School of Yale College in 1862. (before the creation of the University of Connecticut).  Two of the professors there, Dr. Samuel Johnson, a professor of Chemistry, and William Brewer, a professor of Agriculture, had for years been active in promoting agricultural science in Connecticut and elsewhere in the United States.  Dr. Johnson had already gone to study the research system in Germany in 1853.  A Vermonter, Dr. W.O. Atwater, a post graduate student under Dr. Johnson, also went to Germany to study the Experiment Stations, and came back and with Dr. Johnson proposed to farmers at a meeting of the Connecticut State Board of Agriculture in 1873, that an Experiment Station be established in the state. It was not well received at first but with the support of funding from a private individual, the State granted $5,000 for the establishment of a temporary, two-year experiment station at Wesleyan University where Atwater was a professor.  The Station, the first of its kind in the United States, was started in 1875 with Atwater, a native of Burlington, Vermont, as its director.  

 

Other States soon followed the Connecticut Example Leading Eventually to the Federal Hatch Act:

Once an Experiment Station was created in Connecticut, and in 1886 other states quickly followed without federal authorizing legislation that came later.  States in this category included California, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, and Vermont.  The movement to secure Federal Aid for Experiment Stations took some time and lobbying by the agricultural colleges that than existed and their attached Experiment Stations.  A Resolution endorsed by this group in 1885 speaks to this need. It stated “that the condition and progress of American agriculture require national aid for investigation and experimentation in the several States and Territories: and that therefore this convention approves the principle and general provisions of what is known as the Cullen bill of the last Congress and urges upon the next Congress the passage of this. Or a similar act.” By 1887 the federal Hatch Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Cleveland.  At the time it was the largest government scientific enterprise ever started with the publications at the time reaching over half a million farmers directly.

 

The Vermont State Agricultural Experiment Station:  

With the support of the Vermont State Board of Agriculture, the state legislature passed an Act creating the Vermont State Agricultural Experiment Station and placed it under the charge of the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College.  According to the announcement of the Station by the Board of Control (see first annual report), it “is the wish to make the Station as widely useful as its resources will admit.  Every Vermont citizen who is concerned in agriculture, whether farmer, manufacturer or dealer, has the right to apply to the Station for any assistance that comes within its province to render, and the Station will respond to all applications as far as lies in its power.”

The first annual report indicated that a farm had been purchased with suitable buildings erected and stocked so that the Vermont Station at the time would be able to carry out work in the following areas:  farm crop experimentation; stock feeding; fruit and vegetable adaptation to the soil and climate of the state; plant diseases; impact of insects on vegetation; fertilizer analysis; and miscellaneous chemical work which may be sent in by farmers of the State.  

At the time the federal Hatch Act required that bulletins or reports of progress shall be published at each Station at least once in three months and sent to the Newspapers in the State where the Station was located.

 

Vermont State Experiment Station Today:

Much has changed at many levels since the passage of the Hatch Act and the establishment of the Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station.  Nationally this is no longer an agrarian country nor is Vermont an agrarian state.  Needs have changed relative to agriculture, food systems and the environment, as well as funding levels both from the federal and state levels.  This brief background paper does not address those issues, nor the list of major research outcomes over the many years relative to the work of the Experiment Station.  To obtain information on the operation and background of the State of Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station today, go to:  The University of Vermont, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station.  As noted on this site, funding for the Station comes from the US Department of Agriculture and the University of Vermont through the State of Vermont’s appropriations.  This site also states that the research done at the Station falls under the USDA goal areas of agricultural systems, food safety, nutrition, natural resources and the environment, and economic opportunities and the quality of life.

 

BLOGGER COMMENTS:

 Vermont agriculture is at a crossroads, and it has been before in its history.  It has gone from being defined first as a grain producing state in the early 1800’s followed by being a sheep raising state in the early 1800s, to a leading butter producing state after, and then with fluid milk to the cities thereafter.  According to records, it has always been in a state of change.  During all of these times there was a great deal of production diversity with other agriculture and agricultural related enterprises. Today the challenges are many to include climate change, market access, fair farm pricing and economic sustainability.  Vermont is becoming a non-agrarian state which is reflected in the makeup of the legislature that has less connection to the land as in the past.  This is true at the national level as well.  We need to remember that the three-legged stool of research, teaching, and extension education continues to be needed today as in the past.  

 

Bold new initiatives many be needed outside of what is considered the status quo. The entities created with the Land Grant Act of 1862, the Hatch Act of 1887, and the Smith Lever Act of 1914 were established to address these needs as they change.  I note that others have stated that while these Experiment Stations and their connected Extension Services have done a good job over the past in educating farmers and their families, that with less than two percent of the population engaged in farming today there is a great deal of ignorance on subjects related to agriculture.  Similar sentiments have been made by others relative to the dairy industry.  For example, in the 2013 Journal of Dairy Science it is stated that “sustainability is more than economic profitability: it also relates to environmental and societal concerns including the quality of life of farm workers and the animals in dairy farms.  Sustained engagement between and among producers, various sectors of the industry, consumers and citizens will be essential.”  As one thoughtful individual connected with UVM Extension has said, “it will take thoughtful inquiry, a long-term perspective, and new ways to measure success in order to assure a viable future for Vermont’s agriculture.”

 

Sources for this blog:

·      Wikipedia, Agricultural experiment station

·      The Seeds of Change 1600-1929-Growing A Nation, in growinganation.org

·      Agricultural Experiment Act of 1887

·      The U.S. Land Grant System: An Overview, Aug 29, 2019, by the Congressional Research Service

·      Clearness of Style, Plainness of Statement, Experiment Station Bulletins in The Early Years, by Lynn B. Padgett, in Journal of Applied Communications, Vol. 70, Issue no. 4, New Prairie Press, 2017

·      The Agricultural Revolution and the Industrial Revolution, England, 1500-1912, by Gregory Clark, UC Davis, June 2002

·      A Condensed History of American Agriculture 1776-1999 Timeline, in www.usda.gov

·      American Experiment Stations and their work in Vermont, Agricultural Report, Vermont State Board of Agriculture for the years 1893 and 11894, pages 86-97.

·      The First Annual Report, Vermont State Agricultural Experiment Station, 1887

·      History of the Station and Legislative Changes, see University of New Hampshire College of Life Sciences and Agriculture, NH Agricultural Experiment Station

·      History of the Hatch Act of 1887, by Linda Benedict and David G. Morrison, in www.lsuagcenter.com

·      See www.soyinfoCenter.com

·      The Future of Vermont Agriculture, by Vern Grubinger, October 8, 2018

·      See USDA Farmers.gov

·      Implications for Research Programs of Agricultural Experiment Stations, by G.M.Browning, Associate Director, Agricultural and Home Economics Experiment Station, Iowa State University

·      Storrs Agricultural Experiment Station Records, Archives and Special Collections, University of Connecticut Library

·      Agricultural Experiment Stations and Branch Stations in the United States, by Calvin Pearson and Amaya Atucha, Journal of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Dec. 2015

·      Science, practice and politics: German agricultural experiment stations in the nineteenth century, by Mark Russel Finlay, Iowa State University, a Retrospective Theses and Dissertations submitted for a PhD in History in 1992

·      The Pioneer Experiment Station, 1875 to 1975, A History by James G. Horsfall, by Antoca Press in association with Union College Press, 1992     

 -        A History of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, at https://genevahistoricalsociety.com     Agricultural Experiment Stations in the United States by A.C. True, Director of the Office of Experiment Station, USDA