THE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION 



in 

 NEW HAMPSHIRE 



Annual Report of Director M. Gale Eastmaui 

 for the Year 1939 



IN THE LIGHT of the approach of the university's seventy-fifth 

 •■• anniversary, it may be well to preface this year's report with a 

 brief summary of some historical facts that have a bearing on our re- 

 search activities. 



The incentive to state legislative consideration of an agricultural 

 college was the Congressional Land Grant act of 1862, which gave 

 the state 150,000 acres of public land to be used for the support of a 

 college of agriculture and the mechanic arts. This land was later 

 sold for $80,000 and the proceeds invested in bonds. None of this in- 

 come could be used for building purposes. The state law w^hich 

 established the New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Me- 

 chanic Arts was passed in 1866. It authorized the location of the 

 college at Hanover in connection with Dartmouth. 



The college was duly opened in 1868. Its first professor was Ezek- 

 iel Webster Diniond, a very able man, who until his death in 1876 

 Avorked energetically for the upbuilding of the struggling institu- 

 tion which was frankly considered as an experiment. 



Sometime previously, one Hon. David Culver of Lyme had offered 

 liis farm and additional cash to a total value of some $50,000 to pro- 

 vide for the location of the new college. Subsequently, this gift 

 went to Dartmouth college because the state did not accept the oft'er, 

 but through the terms of the donation and Dartmouth's generosity 

 much of this income was used for instructional purposes in the new 

 college. 



The building which housed the agricultural classroom work for the 

 remainder of its, stay in Hanover was soon forthcoming from the 

 state legislature in a grant of $15,000. Professor Dimond presented 

 such a g-ood case to the legislature that he not onlv secured the mon- 



o <^ ^ "... 



ey but the job of designing and constructing the building which came 

 to be called Culver Hall. 



Professor Dimond bought a farm himself and donated its use to 

 the instruction of his students. Not long afterwards, John Conant 

 of Jaffrey visited the college and became greatly interested in its ag- 

 ricultural Avork. He bought Professor Dimond's farm and enough 

 additional land to make a total of 360 acres and presented it to the 

 college. He soon gave $60,000 in securities to establish the Conant 

 scholarships. Later he gave still more money for a building. Conant 

 hall on the present campus noAv perpetuates his name. It Avas one 

 of the original four buildings erected in 1893 at Durham. Before 

 leaving, about four more buildings had been erected in Hano\^er to 

 contribute to an agricultural campus. 



