Chapter 1 



The Station is Established 

 (1887-1909) 



Agricultural Experiment Station Building at Hanover, circa 1890 



The New Hampshire Agricuhural Ex- 

 periment Station was estabUshed as a 

 department of the New Hampshire 

 College of Agriculture and Mechanic 

 Arts in 1887. G. H. Whitcher, professor 

 of Agriculture in the college, became 

 the first Director of the Station. Land 

 purchased in 1870 for use as a College 

 Farm for teaching would be used for 

 research by the Station. 



Agricultural interests in the state 

 were not satisfied to have the New 

 Hampshire College of Agriculture and 

 the Mechanic Arts attached to 

 Dartmouth College because over a pe- 

 riod of nearly 20 years fewer than 40 

 agricultural students had been gradu- 

 ated. Benjamin Thompson, a Durham 

 farmer and businessman, willed his 

 farm to the state in 1856 "to promote 

 the cause of agriculture" by establish- 

 ment of a school for that purpose on 



his farm in Durham "wherein shall be 

 thoroughly taught both in the school 

 and in the field, the theory and prac- 

 tice of that most useful and honorable 

 calling." His will had been kept secret 

 until his death in 1890. The legislature 

 passed an Act in 1891 that provided 

 for moving the New Hampshire Col- 

 lege of Agriculture and the Mechanic 

 Arts, and with it the Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station, from Hanover to the 

 Thompson land in Durham. The move 

 was completed in 1893. 



The Station began with two depart- 

 ments — Dairy, and Field and Feeding. 

 A. H. W. Wood was Superintendent of 

 the Dairy Department and Whitcher 

 temporarily in charge of Field and 

 Feeding. Other personnel were F. W. 

 Morse, chemist; C. H. Pettee, meteo- 

 rologist; H. H. Lamson, microscopist- 

 photographer; a farmer; and a clerk. 



