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IV
THE INDUSTRIAL COLLEGE AND THE EXPERIMENT
STATION
HE
fifteen-year period from about 1875 to 1890 was marked by at least
three important developments in the history of the College of
Agriculture. One was the changing of the name of the Agricultural
College to that of Industrial College and the consequent
development of an engineering department within the Industrial
College, as well as the reorganization of the work of the college.
The second was the founding of the Agricultural Experiment Station
with government funds supplied under the Hatch Act. The third
important development was the erection of Nebraska Hall, a
building to house the Industrial College, on the uptown campus of
the University.
At the beginning of this period the
Agricultural College was in operation but certainly in none too
prosperous a condition. Its biggest attraction still, remained the
free rooms in the "dormitory" and the labor supplied students on
the farm. There were two buildings of consequence at the farm, one
the little stone house that was on the property when it was
purchased by the University and the other the large frame house,
erected in 1875, which was torn down in the fall of 1923.
"At the farm house he [a student] can
find a pleasant home, far enough from the city to be out of the
way of its temptations to idleness and worse, and yet near enough
to enjoy all its literary and public advantages," reads the
catalog printed in 1875. "With all of the advantages of quiet and
retirement for study, the student has yet the opportunity to be
part of a young and growing university."
The catalog states that "students in this
college will be required to work at least two hours each day for
five days in the week, unless excused for good reasons. This
labor
will be paid for at the rate of from ten to fifteen cents
an hour, according to the individual's skill and fidelity. Under
this arrangement a faithful student may earn fully half his
necessary expenses. . . . This labor is designed to be educational
in its character, and is planned with reference to illustrating
and enforcing the lessons given in the class-room."
For a while the students at the farm paid $3
a week for board, which included the use of rooms, partially
furnished. Later this seems to have been reduced to around $2 a
week. The rooms at the farm house were furnished with a "stove,
bedstead, table, two chairs, and a coal bucket." The occupants of
the room had to furnish everything else. The rooms in the
dormitory at the farm were listed as being "free" but there was no
provision for "self-boarding" at the farm.
The downtown campus of the University was
still the headquarters of the Agricultural College for many years.
The early catalogs provided that "class recitations in purely
agricultural studies will be either at the farm house or at the
University building, as may be found most convenient. All other
recitations will be made to the regular professors in the
academical department." As more ambitious agricultural courses
were established, they appear to have been housed in old
University Hall, or in Nebraska Hall, erected later on.
An advantage offered to the students of
agriculture for a while was the opportunity to teach school during
the winter. For a brief period it was the custom in this
department to hold school in the fall, spring, and summer.
Students could then secure positions in the country schools of the
state for the winter. Another purpose behind this plan was the
idea that students should have some experience with the actual
growing of crops and could be furnished more employment during the
summer. This plan was announced in the catalogs published in 1875
and 1876, but Chancellor Benton in his report for 1876 con-
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sidered it a questionable advantage, and it was
apparently abandoned soon thereafter.
The recommendation of Chancellor Benton and
the notation of the Board of Regents that the agricultural course
should be of a more technical nature does not seem to have been
followed out. In fact, the catalogs from 1875 to 1879 stated that
"it will be seen that students taking the full course will study
agricultural studies about one-third of the time; literary and
scientific studies about two-thirds." Among the somewhat unusual
subjects listed in the agricultural course of 1878 were fish
culture, ornithology, history of agriculture, moral philosophy,
and international law. The catalog published in 1877 announced a
four-year course in agriculture, besides one year preparatory, and
a shorter course of two years, besides one year preparatory.
The first graduate of the Agricultural
College was Harvey Culbertson, who was afterward to become acting
professor of agriculture and superintendent of the farm, and later
professor of horticulture. In the catalog of 1874-75 Mr.
Culbertson was listed as the only fourth-year student in the
Agricultural College, also holding the position of "foreman of the
garden." In his report for 1875 Chancellor Benton announced that
"there will be no graduating exercises, although one student will
complete the course prescribed for graduation in the Agricultural
Department." The following year the chancellor recommended that
Mr. Culbertson be given "the diploma of Bachelor of Agriculture at
the approaching commencement." Mr. Culbertson had previously
studied in Indiana, and came to Nebraska with advanced credit. Mr.
Culbertson is reported to be living at El Cajon, Cal. The second
graduate of the Agricultural College was Charles Brainard, who
received his degree in June, 1877. Mr. Brainard took all of his
work at the University of Nebraska. He now lives in Denver.
Students listed in the catalogs from 1875 to 1880 as taking the
course in agriculture numbered for the respective years 15, 13,
16, 9, 9, 12.
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE INDUSTRIAL
COLLEGE
But a legislative enactment that was to
change the complexion of the Agricultural College for many years
to come was that passed by the legislature in 1877. It provided
for "an industrial college, embracing agriculture, practical
science, civil engineering, and the mechanic arts." It will be
recalled that in 1869 the Legislature had provided for a College
of Agriculture, and also a College of Practical Science, Civil
Engineering and Mechanics. The latter had not yet been
established, but the new law combined it with the Agricultural
College. Thus things were to remain for more than thirty
years.
The original land grant act passed by
Congress had provided for "such branches of learning as are
related to agriculture and the mechanic arts." Perhaps it was the
idea that the provision for instruction in the mechanic arts must
be complied with or perhaps it was the idea that since the
Agricultural College was not succeeding particularly well, it
might be strengthened by combining with it another line of
activity.
The following excerpts from the report of the
Board of Regents for the two years ending in 1878 throw some light
on this point:
"It is true that a school of agriculture has
for many years been established and in connection therewith a
model farm. . . . Owing, however, to the seeming necessity of
making the farm self-sustaining, so far as possible, very little
has been done during the past two years not looking to immediate
profit. It is submitted to your consideration if the agricultural
interests of the state do not demand a different management of
this particular institution. It has already cost the state a large
amount of money, not less than $25,000. Its management should
therefore benefit the whole state, not by raising grain for sale,
but by experimenting in those directions most beneficial to the
whole state. . . .
"While, as shown by the above, something has
been done in the department of agriculture, nothing whatever has
been attempted in the direction of teaching those branches of
learning related to the
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mechanical arts, and nothing can be done until a suitable
building is provided therefor. . . . Such schools, under the act
of congress before mentioned, are in successful operation in
connection with the Illinois Industrial and Cornell Universities.
They ought to become successful and valuable departments of the
University of Nebraska. It is evident that the act before
mentioned had in view in a very large degree the practical
education of the industrial classes, not of course in exclusion of
other branches of learning, but in addition thereto."
It was many years before much semblance of an
engineering department began to appear, and ten years before the
Industrial College had its own building. Lieut. E. S. Dudley, who
was the first army officer detailed to look after the military
department of the University under the land grant act, was chosen
by the Board of Regents in April, 1877, to give instruction in
civil engineering the following year at a salary of $400. At the
end of that year, however, he was relieved of such duties, because
of a retrenchment in expenditures, and that instruction was handed
over to other members of the faculty without additional
compensation.
Professor S. R. Thompson had resigned from
the position of both professor and dean of the College of
Agriculture in December, 1875. This professorship remained vacant
until a meeting of the Board of Regents in June, 1878, when Harvey
Culbertson, "who theretofore had given instruction in the
agricultural department, was made acting professor of agriculture
at a salary of $400. His duties as superintendent of the farm at a
salary of $600 continuing." Professor Thompson returned to the
service of the University and was both professor and dean of the
Industrial College in 1882.
Members of the faculty who carried on
instruction mainly in the academic college of the University found
a place among the list of faculty members of the Agricultural and
later the Industrial College. Among such, in 1877, were Hiram
Collier, professor of chemistry and physics; H. E. Hitchcock,
professor of mathematics; Samuel Aughey, professor of natural
sciences; G. E. Bailey, first a tutor and
then professor of agricultural and analytical chemistry;
and First Lieut. Edgar S. Dudley, professor of surveying and civil
engineering.
FACULTY DISSENSION IN THE UNIVERSITY
These were troublous days in the University,
with many changes in the faculty. Chancellor Benton had been
succeeded in 1876 by Chancellor Edmund Burke Fairfield. In
January, 1882, the Board of Regents dismissed three of the
professors in the academic college, and followed this up the
following June by dismissing Chancellor Fairfield himself. Clement
Chase in the Semi-Centennial Anniversary Book of the University of
Nebraska tells something of this period:
"The administration of Chancellor Fairfield
at Nebraska was a somewhat tempestuous period in the history of
the University. It was characterized by a factional struggle in
the faculty, accounts of which may be read in the Omaha and
Lincoln papers of the day. On the one side were the head of the
institution and his supporters, largely of denominational school
training, and on the other side were the young and vigorous
champions of non-sectarianism in the conduct of the institution
and of new and liberal views in education. Those of the radical
faction who were chiefly involved were three men of unusual
brilliance, namely George E. Woodberry, of the department of
English literature, later the noted poet and critic; Harrington
Emerson of the department of foreign languages, to whom is chiefly
due the nation-wide 'efficiency' movement and slogan of the last
decade; and George E. Church of the chair of Latin. The upshot of
the factional struggle was that all four men, the chancellor and
the three brilliant young professors, left the service of the
institution."
A new chancellor, Irving J. Manatt, was
elected at a meeting of the regents December 18, 1883. Prof. H. H.
Nicholson was elected to the chair of chemistry and physics in
July, 1882. Mr. Nicholson was to play a large part in the
Industrial College and Experiment Station later on. Prof. Samuel
Aughey, who had been associated with the
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academic and also the agricultural department as
professor of natural sciences, tendered his resignation in 1883.
On March 20, 1884 the resignations of both Prof. S. R. Thompson
and Prof. Harvey Culbertson were received and accepted to take
effect on September 1. At this meeting Col. E. P. Savage of Custer
County (later acting governor of Nebraska) was appointed
superintendent of the Industrial College farm.
A meeting of the regents on June 10, 1884,
was eventful in that it marked the election of Professor C. E.
Bessey, vice president of the Iowa Agricultural College, to the
chair of botany and horticulture in the Industrial College. It is
said that this election to the chair at Nebraska was without his
knowledge. Professor Bessey was reluctant to leave Iowa, but a
second offer in August, 1884, included the deanship of the
Industrial College as well. His inaugural address was delivered at
the University of Nebraska in September, 1884, and his active
class work began in January, 1885. Professor Bessey was the
outstanding figure in this period of the University's development
and for thirty years was to play an important part in the
agricultural affairs of the state.
"Pending the selection of a professor of
agriculture, Mr. Henry H. Wing, B. Agr., of Cornell University,
and assistant to Dr. Sturtevant at the New York Experiment Station
at Geneva, was secured as instructor and began his work at the
opening of the year," reads the chancellor's report of 1884. In
March, 1885, Mr. Savage resigned as superintendent of the college
farm and in June Mr. Wing was appointed instructor in agriculture
and director of the farm. On June 15, 1888, the resignation of Mr.
Wing as adjunct professor of agriculture and superintendent of the
farm was accepted and John S. Kingsley was elected in December,
1888, to begin work July 1, 1889. "On July 19, 1888, the Board
found it necessary to dispense with the services of Irving J.
Manatt as Chancellor of the University," according to a report of
the Board of Regents.
Doctor Bessey was elected dean of the
academic faculty for the year beginning September 1, 1888, and he
also became acting chancellor of the University. Doctor Bessey was
now the leading figure in the development of the Industrial
College and the University. Lewis E. Hicks, professor of geology,
was now dean of the Industrial College.
We are concerned primarily with the
development of the agricultural side of the Industrial College,
but probably it will be worth while to take a look at the roster
of the members of the faculty connected with the Industrial
College. Most of them, it must be remembered, served also in the
academic department. The catalog issued in 1889 lists the
following: Lewis E. Hicks, geology and applied sciences, dean;
Henry E. Hitchcock, mathematics; George E. Howard, history; Hudson
H. Nicholson, chemistry; Lucius A. Sherman, English literature;
Charles E. Bessey, botany and horticulture; Thomas Griffith, U. S.
A., military science and tactics; August H. Edgren, modern
languages; DeWitt B. Brace, physics; John S. Kingsley, agriculture
and biology; Charles N. Little, civil engineering; Robert W.
Furnas, forestry; Howard W. Caldwell, history; Rachel Lloyd,
analytical chemistry; Ebenezer W. Hunt, rhetoric and oratory;
Joseph A. Fontaine, romance languages; Amos G. Warner, political
and economic science; Harry K. Wolfe, philosophy; and Bohumil
Shimek, zoology. By this time the Industrial College had absorbed
the scientific work formerly given in the Academic College. This
will be discussed a little later, along with other changes in the
Industrial College.
THE EXPERIMENT STATION
The important development of this period was
the founding of the Agricultural Experiment Station, the federal
government again coming to the aid of the agricultural colleges as
it had done in the very beginning. By an Act of Congress approved
March 2, 1887, $15,000 a year was
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given to the land grant college or state experiment
station in each state - or divided between such institutions in
the same state - to promote original scientific investigation in
the field of agriculture. The purposes of this so-called "Hatch
Act" are stated in Section 2:
"That it shall be the object and duty of said
experiment stations to conduct original researches or verify
experiments on the physiology of plants and animals; the diseases
to which they are severally subject, with the remedies for the
same; the chemical composition of useful plants at their different
stages of growth; the comparative advantages of rotative cropping
as pursued under a varying series of crops; the capacity of new
plants or trees for acclimation; the analysis of soils and water;
the chemical composition of manures, natural or artificial, with
experiments designed to test their comparative effects on crops of
different kinds; the adaptation and value of grasses and forage
plants; the composition and digestibility of the different kinds
of food for domestic animals; the scientific and economic
questions involved in the production of butter and cheese; and
such other researches or experiments bearing directly on the
agricultural industry of the United States as may in each case be
deemed advisable, having due regard to the varying conditions and
needs of the respective states or territories."
Each state was required to make yearly
reports of the results of the work and to publish bulletins at
least once in three months. The law was known as the "Hatch Act"
because the bill had been introduced into the House of
Representatives by William H. Hatch of Missouri. The Nebraska
Legislature accepted the provisions of the act by an act approved
March 31, 1887.
But before going further, it would be well
perhaps to outline in a brief way some of the earlier experimental
work on the college farm. As our readers recall, some work of an
experimental character had been carried on at the college farm,
dating back to the first years of the college, when Professor
Thompson had distributed sugar beet seeds to farmers. There was
constant discussion as to whether the farm should be simply a
model farm or an experimental farm.
In 1874 Professor Thompson recommended
the following agricultural experiments as being most desirable to
be carried out: (1) Best method of cultivating our ordinary
grains; (2) testing new varieties; (3) new kinds of fruits and
vegetables suitable for our soil and climate; (4) cultivation of
tame grasses; (5) breeding of stock, especially hogs and cattle.
In 1875 twenty-three kinds of grass and clover were sown to test
their adaptability to the climate. Thirty-eight varieties of
potatoes were planted. There were six kinds of wheat, ten kinds of
field and sweet corn, fourteen kinds of beans, and ten kinds of
peas.
What was probably the first report, published
by itself, of experimental work in the Industrial College,
appeared about 1880. It was a pamphlet of thirty-one printed
pages, containing a description of the farm and its equipment, a
statement of the instruction offered in agriculture, and the
results of experimental work. Among other things, the experiments
included a comparison of dry and soaked corn for pig feeding, cost
of raising an acre of sorghum and of manufacturing it into syrup,
test of varieties of wheat, depth of sowing grain, test of
varieties of potatoes, test of varieties of sugar beets for
feeding purposes, and a record of rainfall and temperature.
The coming of Professor Bessey to the
University had done much to put the experimental work on a more
definite basis, and in 1884 we find him outlining a program of
experiments:
"There are two classes of experiments and
observations, viz.: 1st, those which are popular in their
character, and which aim to reach immediate results; and 2d, those
which are scientific in character, in which the aim is to discover
some profound principle, or establish beyond dispute some fact in
nature. The popular class of experiments includes those in which
the relative productiveness of different varieties of plants is
tested; those by which new varieties are brought into notice;
those in which the relative values of different implements and
tools are tested, etc., etc. Such experiments have a value, and
when properly conducted a high value, but their value in any case
is limited to narrow areas, and affected by many and constantly
changing conditions. . . .
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"The experiments and observations of
the other class require much more time and care for their
consummation, but their results when obtained have an accuracy and
a wideness of application which give them a high value for all
times and in all places. It would be well to draw a sharp line of
demarkation between these two classes of experiments and then to
adopt a fixed policy with respect to each."
The popular experiments suggested by the dean
included:
1. Experiments with stock as to breeding and
feeding.
2. Experiments with various kinds of grain
crops.
3. Experiments with various kinds of grasses
and other forage plants.
4. Experiments upon different modes of
culture for various crops, etc., etc., etc.
The scientific experiments suggested by the
dean were full meteorological observations, observations upon soil
temperature, observations of the humidity of the soil,
observations upon the percolation of water thru soils, chemical
and physical analyses of soils, the fertility of soils as related
to the texture and composition of the subjacent strata, the
porosity or compactness of soils as affected by cultivation and by
burrowing species of worms, insects, and rodents, the necessity
and practicability of irrigation in various parts of Nebraska, the
observation and study of the injurious insects of the state, the
observation and study of the injurious fungi of the state,
experiments upon fertilization and crossfertilization of plants,
and, experiments upon proper temperatures for the germination of
seeds.
Five Press Bulletins were issued by the
Industrial College in 1885. They were entitled Apple Blight, Twig
Blight, or Fire Blight, The Premature Dropping of the Plum, The
Condition of the Industrial College, The Industrial College Herd,
and The Smut of Indian Corn. Doctor Bessey prepared four of them.
They were only short bulletins, about 200 to 400 words in
length.
In 1886 Dean Bessey reported that in the
popular series of experiments work had been undertaken with the
breeding and feeding of stock, with the various kinds of
grasses
and forage plants, and with the modes of culture for
various crops. Along the line of scientific experiments, full
meteorological observations and studies of the injurious fungi of
the state were being made regularly. Steps had been taken toward
making chemical and physical analyses of soils.
A feature of the experimental work about this
time was the employment of Dr. F. S. Billings in 1886 to solve the
question of the nature and remedies for "the disease of swine,
commonly known as 'hog cholera'." Doctor Billings was the first
scientist employed to give his full time to experimental work.
Before this there had been a conference between officers of the
University and the State Board of Agriculture relative to the
establishment of a school of veterinary science. It is not
apparent that such a school was placed in actual operation, altho
veterinary instruction was given along with the regular
agricultural courses. Regarding the appointment of Doctor
Billings, the report of the Board of Regents states:
"At the June (1886) meeting, as a
preliminary, the Board provided for the establishment of an
experiment station for the investigation of the diseases of
domestic animals, and authorized the committee to contract with
Dr. Frank S. Billings, who had taken his degrees in Germany, and
was highly recommended by some of the most distinguished masters
in veterinary science in Europe, as its director, and appropriated
$1,500 for salary and expenses up to April 1st, the term of his
present engagement. Previous to his appointment, Dr. Billings had,
at the invitation of the committee, availed himself of such
accommodations as could be furnished him at the farm and the
University building, aided by the valuable instruments, apparatus,
and library, belonging to himself, to commence his investigations
of the origin and nature of the swine plague or hog cholera."
Doctor Billings occupied three rooms in the
main University building uptown for a laboratory, culture room and
office. There was an animal house on the city campus of the
University, and a small building devoted to animal work at the
college farm. At this time it was estimated that the annual losses
from swine plague in Nebraska
CHARLES E. BESSEY
For thirty years a leader in Nebraska agriculture
© 2002 for the NEGenWeb Project by Pam Rietsch, Ted & Carole
Miller
