CHAPTER I 

 THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Historically the movement for agricultural education in the 

 United States dates back to 1785 when associations for the pro- 

 motion of agriculture began to be formed. A few years later, 

 in 1792, mainly in response to the agitation of these associations, 

 colleges undertook to provide for instruction in agriculture, first 

 Columbia, and then Harvard and Yale ( i ) - 1 



It was not, however, until 1862 that the real movement for 

 scientific agriculture had its beginning. Congress of this year 

 authorized the establishment of a department of agriculture 

 (2, p. 57), and also passed the Morrill Act giving to each state 

 a grant of land with which to establish a state college of agri- 

 culture and mechanic arts (2, pp. 62-64). The Hatch Act of 

 1887 provided for agricultural experiment stations in each state 

 and territory (2, pp. 64-66), and during the following year the 

 Office of Experiment Stations was created as a separate bureau 

 of the Department to serve as the official head of all the agri- 

 cultural experiment stations. 



On July i, 1862, the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture was organized. Its growth as expressed in terms of 

 people employed and total expenditures may be seen by com- 

 paring 29, the number employed the first year, with 17,819, the 

 number employed in 1908, and $63,704.21 expended the first year 

 with $13,628,696 expended in 1908. For the last twenty years 

 Congress has provided liberally for the maintenance of the De- 

 partment. It has been estimated that nearly $100,000,000 has 

 been spent during this time for agricultural research and edu- 

 cation, for the most part through the Department. This vast 

 expenditure, of course, would never have been made had it not 



* Figures in parentheses refer to corresponding numbers in the annotated bibliography , 

 P- 132. 



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