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 Fall/Winter
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When Penn State was founded in 1855 as a four-year college called the Farmers' High School, a pioneer in agricultural research, Evan Pugh, served as its first president. Pugh had sold the family farm in Oxford, Pennsylvania, and traveled to Germany to study at the University of Gottingen, where he earned a Ph.D. in agricultural chemistry. Before returning to Pennsylvania to head the state's new agricultural college, Pugh conducted further studies at other outstanding European universities, gaining recognition among scientists on both sides of the Atlantic for his seminal research on nitrogen fixation. His discovery that grasses do not absorb nitrogen from the air would one day be important to the development of commercial fertilizers. In the mid-1800s, agricultural science was in its infancy. Botany was the only natural science to receive any serious attention in the United States, and organic chemistry was virtually unknown. Most Pennsylvania farmers lacked formal education, relying instead on hard work, traditional husbandry, and trial and error to produce enough crops to feed their families. Pugh was committed to helping farmers work smarter by applying scientifically proven methods to their production practices. He stated, "There is no branch of human industry involving more scientific principles, in the practical operations of its various departments, than . . . that of agriculture." Pugh set out to develop a scientific course of study at the Farmers' High School, so named to appeal to farmers and convey that the institution offered a practical rather than a classical curriculum. Laboratory research was pivotal to Pugh's philosophy of education. In 1855 he wrote, "There is not so very much in this science (agriculture) to study. There is immense to do, and after this is done there will be something to study about." Scientific textbooks in agriculture were lacking and theories unproved, so Pugh equipped a laboratory and required students to conduct experiments. Since research was the focus of graduate study back then, as it is today, in 1861 Pugh established the first Master of Scientific Agriculture degree program in the United States. The following year, the Farmers' High School was renamed the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania, and in 1863, it was designated the state's land-grant college.
Land-grant schools are public research institutions supported in part by federal appropriations and dedicated to teaching "such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts . . . in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of life." Recognizing that scientific research was needed to advance agriculture, in 1887 Congress established agricultural experiment stations at land-grant institutions nationwide. Each station received an annual appropriation based on the number of small farmers in the state, as well as free use of the U.S. postal service for broad distribution of new information. In addition, states provided matching funds for a major portion of the federal appropriation to establish a secure funding base to support research projects of benefit to the public. Pennsylvania's new experiment station was directed by Henry Armsby, an animal nutritionist who had earned a doctorate at Yale. His staff included chemist William Frear, botanist William Buckhout, horticulturist George Butz, and farm superintendent William Patterson along with several young graduates of the college. Armsby, like Evan Pugh, believed in progress through basic and applied research. He wrote, "The Station proposes to undertake, in the interest of the farmers of the State, experiments designed either to add to our knowledge of the principles involved in the successful introduction of crops and animals or to show the best methods of applying . . . principles already established."" With the majority of the population engaged in farming, the application of new agricultural knowledge and methods would improve the welfare of all citizens and their descendants. Research studies were conducted in areas important to the state's economy, including basic research in animal nutrition and soil fertility and applied research in dairy production, tobacco cultivation, and horticulture. Since few farmers were enrolled in college, research findings and recommendations initially were communicated to them through station bulletins, short courses, and public lectures. The station mailed 6,000 copies of its first bulletin, titled Simple Methods of Determining Milk Fat, in 1890. The following year, the first winter courses were offered, one for dairy farmers and another for commercial creamery operators. To make further use of the postal service for education, in 1892 the college introduced the first correspondence course in agriculture to be offered in the United States. Station faculty also spoke at one- or two-day farmers' institutes sponsored by the state Department of Agriculture and held throughout the commonwealth. By the turn of the century, 50,000 farmers were attending institutes in Pennsylvania. As the discoveries in agricultural science increased, so did the challenge of disseminating new information to those who could benefit from it. The experiment station was distributing more than 43,000 bulletins in 1912 but was still reaching only a fraction of the 360,000 full-time farmers in Pennsylvania. When high schools in the state began offering agricultural courses, the college soon took advantage of this new method of educating farmers by introducing a degree program for teachers in 1911. To strengthen outreach, the college also established a network of five county agricultural agents who would transfer technical information from the School of Agriculture and Experiment Station to the agricultural community. Early extension agents in Pennsylvania and a few other states proved to be so effective that in 1914, Congress funded cooperative extension services throughout the land-grant system. Relieved of extension responsibilities, station scientists were able to take on more specialized research projects. They initiated hundreds of new studies on a wide range of subjects, including vitamin requirements for animals and humans, milk marketing analysis, turfgrass breeding, and the development of safer pesticides. As agricultural science programs in land-grant schools grew, so did the need for graduates with advanced degrees to teach and conduct research. Penn State created a Graduate School in 1922 to coordinate advanced degree programs. Several doctoral programs were started in agriculture, and in 1927 the college's first Ph.D. was conferred, in agricultural education. The dedication of early agricultural scientists and ongoing government support for research and extension programs paid off in the 20th century. The United States now has a food and fiber system that is unmatched throughout the world. From 1940 to 1990, the number of people fed by the average U.S. farmer increased from 19 to more than 100, and in 1991 the United States led the world in agricultural exports and food aid to needy countries. Given this success, research in land-grant colleges today focuses less on increasing productivity than on resource development, profitability, sustainability, health and safety, and conservation. At the same time, the effort to solve problems and understand how things work remains as challenging as it was when Evan Pugh set out to apply science to agriculture. Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences now supports more than 300 research projects involving more than 230 scientists, 300 graduate assistants, and other employees. This issue of Penn State Agriculture samples the broad range of research being conducted by the nearly 500 graduate students working with faculty in our college. Their studies run the gamut from very basic work at the cellular level to practical farming applications and solutions to environmental problems. Students come to the University Park Campus from all parts of the globe. While they may have diverse backgrounds and career goals, they are as dedicated to finding answers and solutions as Evan Pugh was when he left the field and stepped into the lab. For
further information on the history of the college, see The College
of Agriculture at Penn State: A Tradition of Excellence by Michael
Bezilla (Penn State Press, 1987).
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Penn State | College of Agricultural Sciences | ICT Copyright - Alternative
Media - Affirmative
Action |
While
livestock still graze on research farms within a stone's throw of
Beaver Stadium, few football fans today think of Penn State as an
ag school. In fact, the university, which awarded the nation's first
baccalaureate degree in agriculture in 1861, leads the Big 10 in
undergraduate enrollment in agricultural sciences. Penn State now
ranks among the nation's top research institutions, but the journey
to the forefront of scientific exploration and discovery began nearly
150 years ago with the application of scientific methods to agriculture,
Pennsylvania's number 1 industry. 