SEA GRANT COLLEGES 63 



THE LESSONS OF THE LAND-GRANT MOVEMENT 



Harold C. Knoblauch, Ph.D., Rutgers University, 1942. He is the 

 Associate Administrator, Cooperative State Research Service, U, S. 

 Department of Agriculture, which administers the federal- grant 

 payments appropriated annually by Congress for research of state 

 agricultural experiment stations. He is a well known author and au- 

 thority on the land-grant system. 



It is always a special privilege to be invited to return to Rhode Island. My 

 first graduate work was done at the University at Kingston. And it was there 

 that I gained firsthand knowledge of the close association between high quality 

 research and graduate instruction. 



Beyond learning more about the basic sciences in relation to agriculture, 

 the location at Kingston gave me the opportunity to observe and contemplate the 

 beauty, the awesome power, and the untold mysteries of the sea. So, let me as- 

 sure you, it is a genuine pleasure to participate in this National Conference on 

 the Concept of a Sea-Grant University. 



Your program committee asked me to present the basic philosophy of fed- 

 eral-state relations in science and education in agriculture. Cooperativeness is 

 essential for the federal and state governnnents to attain mutual goals and objec- 

 tives. American agriculture set an historic pattern for scientific growth and its 

 application to benefit society. In this pattern federal cooperation and state coop- 

 eration have been andcontinue to be primary features of the establishment. 



In my remarks I shall direct particular attention to relationships between 

 the U. S. Department of Agriculture and the land-grant universities. I shall deal 

 specifically from the background of relations with the state agricultural experi- 

 ment stations. These were authorized under the Hatch Experiment Station Act 

 of 1887 and became the keystone for federal- state cooperation in agricultural re- 

 search. 



An important part of the development in agricultural research is the asso- 

 ciated preparation and training of scientists in areas related to agriculture such 

 as biology, botany, entomology, and many others. In today's paper I plan to put 

 emphasis on the significance of the relationship between research and graduate 

 teaching and, in turn, society to the constantly changing problems of people in 

 our individual states. The graduate- study-through- research principle grew out 

 of the longtime development of the USDA-Land Grant System. It got into subse- 

 quent legislation providing for federal support of science. Plans for programs 

 of education, training and research are included in Senator Pell's bill, (S. 2439), 

 and in Section 2 of Congressman McGrath's bill (H. R. 11579), proposing the 

 "Oceanographic Act of 1965." The approach and method of support are different 

 than in the Land Grant or Experiment Station Act. 



Reference will also be made to the agricultural research and extension 

 programs as a means for making important science findings available to farm- 

 ers and consumers. And, some of the significant results growing out of the 

 land-grant college concept will be mentioned briefly. The product of 100 years' 

 cooperative development and application of science to agriculture is indeed a 

 great example of free institutions allowed to operate in an open society. It is 

 worth careful study by those interested in the growth and development of science 

 as it relates to the sea. 



The lessons from the land-grant college experience will not provide spe- 

 cific answers on how to organize sea-grant colleges. Instead they provide prin- 

 ciples worthy of your serious consideration. For you, their significance lies in 



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