THESE FIFTY YEARS

A HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE

OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA

ROBERT PLATT CRAWFORD

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF JOURNALISM AND AGRICULTURAL EDITOR

Seal

THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA
COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE LINCOLN 1925

UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS
1926

Printed in the United States of America

PREFACE

T seems especially appropriate at this time to publish a history of the College of Agriculture of the University of Nebraska. The year 1922 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the formal establishment of the college by the Board of Regents, while the year 1924 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the enrollment of the first students in agricultural subjects. It is hoped and intended that this little volume shall preserve for the future much valuable material that would otherwise soon be forgotten.
   To study back over fifty years of Nebraska education and agriculture and to choose the facts that should make up a history of this kind has been no easy task. In fact, in the later years the writer has been confronted with such a mass of material as to threaten seriously the balance and scope of the work. Occasionally there have been temptations to deviate from the straight and narrow path and to write a history of the University of Nebraska or of Nebraska agriculture. But it has always seemed wise to stick to the matter in hand, with only such references to the outside as are necessary to make our history a readable and interesting affair.
   The history of each department or division of work within the college has been concluded at some convenient point within the last three or four years. The passing of judgment and review on matters of the immediate present has been left for some future writer. In correcting the final proofs, however, it has happily been found possible to include some last minute facts of interest.
   To have written this history without the whole-hearted interest and co-operation of a great many different people would have been quite impossible. The officers and faculty of the college have given a great measure of assistance in furnishing and in checking up on source material. There
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PREFACE

are many who have taken more than ordinary interest in the supplying of data, or in the critical reading of the manuscript, or in its preparation for the press. Accordingly, due acknowledgment should be made to Dean E. A. Burnett, of the college; Dean James Stuart Dales, the veteran secretary of the Board of Regents; Dr. A. E. Sheldon of the Nebraska State Historical Society; Dr. E. S. Evenden of Columbia University; Dr. Guernsey Jones of the department of history of the University of Nebraska; Prof. M. H. Swenk, Mr. S. W. Perin, and, Mr. W. W. Marshall of the College of Agriculture; Mr. S. C. Bassett of Gibbon; Mr. Ralph B. Scott of the University Press, and Mr. Gayle C. Walker of the School of Journalism.
ROBERT P. CRAWFORD

Lincoln, Neb.,
May, 1925.