Chapter 5 



Beginning of the Keener Years 

 (1958-1963) 



Several departments in the college 

 changed names in 1957-58. The Depart- 

 ment of Agricultural and Biological 

 Chemistry was renamed Biochemistry. 

 Three "husbandry" departments — 

 Animal, Dairy and Poultry — became 

 Animal Science, Dairy Science and 

 Poultry Science, respectively. 



H. A. Keener was named Director of 

 the Agricultural Experiment Station in 

 1958 and Dean of the College and Direc- 

 tor of the Station in 1961. At that time 

 the Cooperative Extension Service be- 

 came a unit of the College of Agriculture 

 with S. W. Hoitt as Director. 



H. A. Keener, Dean and Director 



A two-year program in agriculture, 

 beginning in 1895, was taught by regu- 



lar faculty members. Later, the program 

 qualified as a vocational agriculture 

 course with federal aid and was reorga- 

 nized with a separate staff. P. S. Barton 

 became Director of the unit in 1941 at 

 which time it was called the Applied 

 Farming Course. In 1953 it became the 

 Thompson School of Agriculture, a di- 

 vision of the College of Agriculture. Its 

 name was changed to the Thompson 

 School of Applied Science in 1966. 

 Members of the Thompson School fac- 

 ulty have at times consulted, or served, 

 in a technical capacity on Station 

 research projects. Moreover, the 

 Thompson School shop has been used 

 particularly to fabricate equipment for 

 Station-supported research. 



By 1959, 50 percent of the Station's 

 professional staff had Ph.D.s. As Direc- 

 tor Keener has indicated, the services of 

 these Station scientists are most effi- 

 ciently used when they are assisted by 

 college graduates with scientific de- 

 grees. Graduate students contribute im- 

 portantly to Station research in most 

 departments in the college. Graduate 

 students become more useful the longer 

 they remain, but they also obtain excel- 

 lent training for careers in science. 



A new department of Soil and Wa- 

 ter Science was formed in 1963, consist- 

 ing of the Department of Agricultural 

 Engineering and those persons from 

 Agronomy more specifically interested 

 in soils. A. B. Prince was named chair- 

 man of the new department. 



Agricultural Economics 



In an examination of the Federal Soil 

 Bank Program in Coos County, R. A. 



31 



