66 SEA GRANT COLLEGES 



LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR STATE-FEDERAL COOPERATION 



The Land-Grant Act, signed by Lincoln on July 2, 1862, and the Act creat- 

 ing the Department of Agriculture, which he had signed on May 15, 1862, were 

 destined to become the legal framework for state-federal cooperation in agri- 

 cultural research. In the true sense of the word, however, state-federal coop- 

 eration did not come about until 1887, with passage of the Hatch Experiment 

 Station Act of 1887, and the Act of February 9, 1889, raising the United States 

 Department of Agriculture to cabinet rank. 



The struggle was a long and earnest one. Many of the young professors who 

 gave support and sponsorship to the land-grant college movement were not sat- 

 isfied that their end objective had been reached. They wanted the colleges to be 

 scientific institutions where knowledge was sought as well as taught. Soon after 

 the end of the Civil War, there were attempts to establish a national organiza- 

 tion of land-grant colleges. 



The divergent views of the science and experimentation group on the one 

 hand and the teachers' and college presidents' group on the other are discussed 

 at length in Chapters V and VI of STATE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STA- 

 TIONS (1, pp. 55-110). So are the differences of viewpoint between the state 

 institutions and the Department of Agriculture leaders. 



In the meantime, there were increasingly glowing reports of the success 

 of scientific research on behalf of agriculture in Europe. Also, agricultural 

 experiment stations were becoming popular in the United States. The first was 

 begun at Middletown, Connecticut, in 1875. It was moved in 1877 to its present 

 home in New Haven. In the next 10 years, state agricultural experiment stations 

 were established in Alabama, California, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massa- 

 chusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Vermont and 

 Wisconsin. In addition, agricultural colleges in Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, 

 Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hmpshire, 

 Pennsylvania and South Carolina had also undertaken systematic experimentation 

 (6, p. 133). But until the Hatch Act of 1887 was passed, no federal funds became 

 available. 



Numerous annual meetings of Department and lang- grant college leaders 

 did not come to a decisive point until 1885, when the new Commissioner of Agri- 

 culture, Norman Colman, invited delegates from the agricultural colleges and 

 experiment stations to meet in Washington, D. C. The convention paved the way 

 for organization of the American Association of Agricultural Colleges and Ex- 

 periment Stations. The latter did not materialize until six months after passage 

 of the Hatch Act. The Hatch Act authorized federal funds for establishing and 

 maintaining agricultural experiment stations in each state. 



By the terms of the Act and subsequent legislation, the states are required 

 to provide matching funds on a formula basis; also to furnish physical plant 

 facilities such as buildings, laboratories, and acreage for experimental purposes. 

 Two points need to be kept in mind: (1) That the stations have, since the begin- 

 ning, been bona fide state institutions --they continue as such; and, (2) although 

 there is a high degree of cooperation between the Department of Agriculture and 

 the state experiment stations, there is no effort on the part of the federal gov- 

 ernment to exercise direction or control. 



"What was the significance of the Hatch Act," asked Dr. Russell Thackrey, 

 Executive Secretary- Treasurer, National Association of State Universities and 

 Land-Grant Colleges, in an address given on the 75th anniversary of the Mis- 

 souri Agricultural Experiment Station, in April 1963. "Historically, this can 

 be answered in many ways: (1) The usual way is to point to the greatly increased 

 efficiency of American agriculture with the resulting abundance of food and fiber 

 available to a rapidly increasing U. S. population at steadily decreasing costs in 



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