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VI
THE CROWNING YEARS
HE
years from about 1909 to 1923 were the crowning years in the
history of the College of Agriculture. Could Professor Thompson,
the first professor of agriculture, and those early residents of
the state who wagged their heads at agricultural education have
stepped into the farm campus in 1923, Professor Thompson would
have found his most sanguine dreams more than realized, while
those who scoffed perhaps would have remained to learn. They would
have found nine great buildings devoted exclusively to
experimentation and instruction, among them the finest
agricultural engineering building in the world, a dairy building
famous thruout the West, and the best equipped animal pathology
plant in the Mississippi Valley. Instead of an unattractive
farmstead of the seventies they would have found a magnificent
campus laid out with trees and flower beds, a paved street running
alongside the farm, and street cars to the door of the
institution. Instead of ten or fifteen students studying
agriculture, they would have found some one thousand students, men
and women, about half of them enrolled in a practical high school
course emphasizing agriculture and home economics and the other
half enrolled in a regular college course. They would have found
some seventy members of the college faculty, and nearly as many
more connected with other branches of college activity, a great
state-wide Agricultural Extension Service reaching every corner of
the state with its force of county agents and extension
specialists, three experimental substations in western Nebraska, a
school of agriculture at Curtis, Neb., and a fruit farm near
Union.
If the preceding period, dating from about
1890 to 1909, was the period in which agriculture came into its
own, this was the period in which the Agricultural College came
into
its own. The first big thing that happened during these
years was the action of the Legislature in 1909 in dividing the
Industrial College into a College of Engineering and a College of
Agriculture. Once more the College of Agriculture was a unit by
itself. The next big thing was the provision of the Legislature in
the same year for two additional substations to be maintained in
connection with the College of Agriculture. One of these was
located at Valentine, and the other near Mitchell. With the
substation at North Platte, this now made three substations under
the control of the University. Then, in 1911, came provision for
the school of agriculture in western Nebraska, located at Curtis.
The Agricultural Extension Service, as it is
known today, really had its birth in this period. It was an
outgrowth of the farmers' institute, and soon, thanks to the
Smith-Lever Act of 1914, providing federal aid, became one of the
most important lines of college activity, ranking in importance
with the experiment station. Legislation providing for county aid
for agricultural agents, or farm demonstrators, was passed by the
Nebraska Legislature in 1913, and the first county agents in
Nebraska began to be appointed about this time. The development of
this extension work, along with that of the experimental
substations, will be left for later discussion.
But the thing that made the most difference
in the actual appearance and development of the material side of
the institution goes back to an agitation which had been going on
for a number of years to have the main University on the uptown
campus moved out to the Agricultural College, or else to have
additional land purchased uptown. Briefly, the University needed
more room, both for immediate and for future needs. The attendance
in all the schools and colleges of the University had increased to
3,992 (unrepeated names) in 1909-10. In this connection it is
interesting to note that by 1915-16 the attendance had increased
to 4,826, notwithstanding that a few years before the roster
had been pared by removing the names of students in an
affiliated school of music, as well as those taking University
extension work without credit. In 1923-24 the total registration
had grown to 10,352 in all schools and colleges. Here was
vindication for those who had anticipated the future by urging a
definite policy of developing the institution.
So in the early years of this period there
was constant debate and discussion as to the location of the
University, whether it should remain uptown or be moved out to the
Agricultural College. The Legislature in 1913, however, decided to
refer the matter of location to the people of the state. At the
same time it made the important provision that there be a special
University extension fund, consisting of the proceeds of a tax of
three-fourths of a mill on the dollar valuation of the grand
assessment roll of the state, to be levied in 1913 and annually
thereafter for six years to and including the year 1918. If the
people of the state voted that the main part of the University
should stay where it was, one-third of the money realized from the
tax was to be available for the purpose of erecting buildings on
the farm campus and two-thirds of the money was to be available
for development on the city campus of the University.
The people at the general election in 1914
voted to keep the University downtown and so the College of
Agriculture came into possession of one-third of the special levy.
This special levy was extended in 1919 for another two years. In
the latter years, owing to the sudden demands on the University in
the way of increased expenses, incident to the War; and, the
subsequent boom, some of the money was used, by authorization of
the Legislature, for maintenance and salaries. The building
program at the Agricultural College prospered greatly during these
years. The plant industry building was erected in 1912 and 1913 at
a cost of approximately $87,000. It now houses the departments of
horticulture, entomology, the work in botany
and plant pathology, and part of the department of
agronomy. The new dairy building was erected in 1916-17 at a cost
of $175,000. The agricultural engineering building came next, in
1918, at a cost of $195,000. Finally came the group of buildings
for animal pathology in 1919-20, erected at a cost of about
$133,000. Of course one might also include in the work of this
period the hog cholera serum laboratory, erected in 1911-12, and
the horse barn and the new boiler house in 1915-16.
It must be remembered that the World War came
in the later years of this period. To the University this meant
many things. Students began to withdraw to enter training camps
and to enlist in the Army and Navy. Soon there came an insistent
demand for greater food production and the College of Agriculture,
thru its extension service, found itself charged with carrying on
the work in food production and food conservation. County agents,
supported by government aid, were placed in nearly all important
farming counties of the state.
Those who had been compelled to take military
drill during two years of their college course now found that
instruction of practical benefit. The service flag of the College
of Agriculture, embracing both school and college, carried 550
stars, representing students, members of the faculty, and alumni
serving in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps or Red Cross. General John
J. Pershing, who, had served in the early nineties as commandant
at the University, was placed in charge of the American
Expeditionary Forces. Chancellor Samuel Avery of the University
became a major in the Chemical Warfare Service. Prof. L. W. Chase
of the department of agricultural engineering became a major in
the Ordnance Department. Dean E. A. Burnett of the college was
called to Europe early in 1919 for service in the Army Overseas
Educational Commission at Beaune University. The University of
Nebraska stood fourth among all universities in percentage of
enlistments among the student body.
A sad feature naturally was the number
of young men who gave their lives in defense of their country.
Those known to have died in service included:
COLLEGE OF
AGRICULTURE
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Roy B. Berryman, Ex-'21
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Central City
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Frank Colcord, Faculty
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Earl Forbes, B.Sc. '18
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Fairmont
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Harold Kelley, Ex-'18
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Omaha
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Edward H. Larson, Ex-'20
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Genoa
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Taylor E. Lewis, Ex-'19
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Superior
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Ivanhoe K. Metz, B.Sc. '17
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Quakertown, Pa.
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Ralph F. Perso, Ex-'20
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Dalton
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Marvin Race, Ex-'22
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Indianapolis, Ind.
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Frank B. Sloan, Ex-'15
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Geneva
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Edward W. Stirk, Ex-'22
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Norfolk
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Harvey E. Vasey, B.Sc. '13
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Fort Collins, Colo.
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Floyd Wambeam, Faculty
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Charles R. Wright, Ex-'19
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Scottsbluff
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SCHOOL OF
AGRICULTURE:
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Walter Hager
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Lincoln
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Thomas Benham, '14
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Lincoln
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Bryan Berryhill, '15
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Gresham
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Norris Burford, Ex-'19
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Lincoln
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Reuben Larson, Ex-'19
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Aurora
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Arthur Moseman, '16
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Emerson
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W. O. Schoenbeck, '10
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Odell
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August Sudbeck, '15
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Hartington
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Dean C. Walker, '14
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Dunbar
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Raymond White, Ex-'17
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Lincoln
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Lemuel Wilcox, '14
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Polk
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Robert Williams, '10
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University Place
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The first effect of the War on the University
and college was a decrease in attendance. But soon the University,
at the request of the government, began to train hundreds of men
in vocational work and in the Students' Army Training Corps.
Barracks were erected at the Agricultural College and practical
courses were given there in tractors, wheelwrighting, and
automobiles.
A reflection of this war work is to be found
even now, in 1923, in the University's Trades School and in the
num-
ber of veterans taking vocational training. The
Legislature of 1921 appropriated $75,000 which went to equipping
the shops for the trades school. The government paid the tuition
of the men taking the work, besides giving them regular
compensation for living expenses. The Trades School has been in
charge of Prof. E. E. Brackett, who for several years has been
connected with the department of agricultural engineering.
The Trades School offered instruction in
printing, mechanical dentistry, practical machine shop work,
plumbing, electrical work, poultry husbandry, automobile
mechanics, and cabinet making. Only the courses in poultry
husbandry, automobile mechanics, and cabinet making were offered
at the agricultural campus. In July, 1922, there were eight men
taking automobile mechanics, ten cabinet making, and thirty-eight
poultry raising. In all the courses taken together, including
those given on the city campus, there were then over one hundred
men enrolled. The total enrollment at one time reached more than
135.
With the division of the Industrial College
into a College of Engineering and a College of Agriculture in
1909, Dean E. A. Burnett, who had been associate dean of the
Industrial College in charge of agriculture, became dean of the
College of Agriculture. Dr. Samuel Avery was acting chancellor of
the University in 1908-09 and became chancellor on May 20, 1909.
Both Chancellor Avery and Dean Burnett have remained with the
University and it has been largely due to their efforts that the
Agricultural College has developed to its present strength.
DEVELOPMENT OF COLLEGE WORK
During the few years following the
establishment of the College of Agriculture as a unit by itself,
enrollment in the agricultural courses picked up rapidly. In two
years the college enrollment doubled and in four years it tripled.
In 1909-10 there were only 116 men and 49 women enrolled;
in 1911-12 there were 208 men and 124 women; in 1913-14
there were 267 men and 201 women. By 1916-17 the enrollment
reached its peak, in that school year 310 men and 282 women, or
592 all told, being registered in the College of Agriculture. Home
economics was showing a splendid development, the great increase
in number of women, from 49 in 1909-10 to 280 in 1916-17, being
evidence of the increasing popularity of that subject. These
figures of course did not include the enrollment in the School of
Agriculture.
The World War caused many students to drop
their studies in order to enlist, while others were obliged to
stay home and help with the crops. The total attendance in the
college dropped from 592 in 1916-17 to 474 in 1917-18. There were
447 enrolled in 1918-19, 542 in 1919-20, 488 in 1920-21, 507 in
1921-22, 558 in 1922-23, and 565 in 1923-24. The falling off in
1920-21 was undoubtedly due to the money stringency prevailing on
Nebraska farms.
The faculty had grown as much in these years
as the student body. There were approximately fifty persons listed
on the roster of the faculty of the College of Agriculture in the
catalog published in 1910. By 1923 this number had grown to
approximately 115. Of course it must be understood that in both
cases the names of members of the school faculty, experimental
workers, and others who were not engaged in teaching in the
college are included, but these figures serve well for comparison.
About seventy of those listed in the catalog for 1923 engaged in
actual teaching of agricultural and home economics subjects in the
college.
Under the reorganization of the College of
Agriculture in 1909 there were three groups of courses offered.
There was one group in agriculture, one group in home economics,
and one group in forestry. Forestry, until the work was abolished
in 1915, was recognized as one of the departments of the College
of Agriculture, altho most of the instructional work was given on
the city campus. In the catalog
published in 1913 there was announced for the first time
an agricultural practice group. The other agricultural group was
now known as the agricultural science group. The practice group
aimed to meet "the needs of those students who come to the college
for one or two years with expectation of returning to the farm at
the expiration of that time and who wish to get a large amount of
agriculture in the early part of the course." Four years' work was
outlined in the practice group, however, perhaps with the idea
that those deciding to remain in college the entire four years
could go right ahead with their work.
The catalog published in 1915 announced a
general agricultural group in place of the agricultural science
group, an agricultural practice group, and a home economics group.
The forestry group had now disappeared. The practice group was
announced as a two-year course. The student who desired to go
ahead with the work after two years would be obliged to enter the
general agricultural group and complete the science requirements.
Agriculture for February, 1915, tells something of these
changes:
"The Agricultural Science Group has been
abolished and a General Agricultural Group has been established in
its place, in which the two years of the course are prescribed and
the last two years are largely elective. The student coming to the
Agricultural College next fall will be able to get one-half his
subjects in agriculture in the General Agricultural Group, the
rest of the time being devoted to the sciences of chemistry,
botany, entomology, and zoology and to the English language. In
the second year, the sciences which were taken up in the first
year will be continued and other agricultural subjects will be
substituted until the student has had at least one course in each
of the eight principal departments of agriculture in the
college.
"Beginning with his Junior year, the student
will select a major subject in which he wishes to become specially
proficient and will spend a portion of his time during the next
two years in this subject.
"Beginning next September, the student who
wishes to take all of his agricultural course at the University
Farm will be able to do so, as the Regents have agreed to offer a
sufficient number of academic
courses at the Farm to fill the requirements for
graduation. On the other hand, those students who desire may take
their general science and their academic studies at the city
campus.
"The Faculty of the College of Agriculture
have also reorganized the Agricultural Practice Group to make it
cover only two years of time instead of four years as was formerly
the case. They have cut out all science requirements in this
two-year group, and will permit the student to devote all of his
time to the study of agricultural subjects. Upon the completion of
the work offered, a certificate of proficiency in farm practice
will be given to those students who have come from the farm and
are experienced in practical farm work. Students coming from the
city can secure this certificate only upon completion of a
specified amount of practice on farms.
"It is expected that the two-year
Agricultural Practice Group will make it unnecessary for any
student with four years of high school credit to enter the School
of Agriculture in order to secure the largest amount of
agriculture in the shortest possible time. This group is sure to
meet the needs of a large number of young men who have not
previously entered the College of Agriculture because of the time
which would have been required in the study of other subjects
before taking up agricultural work."
In the catalog published in 1920 a two-year
group in cooperative business was announced. This group is
especially for mature men who wish training in the management of
co-operative enterprises but who can spend only two years in
college. It embraces a large amount of work in rural
economics.
The catalog for 1921 announced a
reorganization of the agricultural courses. Each student today is
obliged to elect a certain group of studies, in most cases
beginning with the second year. There is now one group in
vocational education, one group in animal husbandry, one group in
dairy husbandry, one group in farm mechanics, one group in plant
industry, one group in rural economics, and one group in poultry
husbandry. The work in all the courses is the same for the first
year, thereby giving a student a year in which to pick out his
subject of major interest. This first year embraces botany,
chemistry, English, animal husbandry, agricultural engineering,
horticulture, dairy husbandry, and military science, giving the
young
man a fairly broad outlook before he begins to
specialize. The two-year agricultural practice course and the
two-year course in co-operative business are still offered, but
have never attracted many students.
The work in home economics was also
subdivided in the same way as the work in agriculture. There is
now one group known as the basic curriculum for professional home
economics, another group specializing in home economics education,
another group in institutional management, and still another group
for those young women who expect to go into agricultural extension
work. In 1922 a two-year course in home economics was announced.
At the completion of this course, the student is recommended to
the State Department of Public Instruction for a certificate
entitling the holder to teach home economics in the grades and
junior high schools. The department of home economics now
maintains a practice house where students live and receive
practical instruction in keeping up a home during part of their
school course.
At the time of the reorganization of the
Industrial College in 1909, most of the agricultural departments
had already been established in the preceding years and now it was
only necessary to go ahead and develop the work under way. It will
be recalled that in 1909 the department of agronomy and farm
management was created, which included all the work given in
crops, soils and farm management. But in 1911 it was reorganized.
Prof. C. W. Pugsley took charge of the work in agricultural
extension and also retained charge of the work in farm management.
How this was worked out is made plain in the catalog published in
1912. There was agronomy, now listed by itself, with a division or
section known as experimental agronomy, and a department of farm
management. The course known as agricultural economics which had
been given originally by Professor Davisson of the School of
Agriculture under the general head of agricultural education had
now disappeared. Prof. P. B. Barker was now the ranking
professor
in the general work in agronomy. Prof. E. G. Montgomery
resigned from the work in experimental agronomy in January, 1912,
to take a position at Cornell University, and Prof. T. A.
Kiesselbach succeeded him. The department of farm management was
carried on by Prof. C. W. Pugsley and Prof. H. C. Filley, who in
1914 became head of the department. It is unnecessary to discuss
here the work in agricultural extension carried on by Mr. Pugsley,
for that is taken up at length elsewhere. In 1916 Prof. W. W. Burr
became head of the department of agronomy. Mr. Burr had had wide
experience in carrying on farming experiments for the United
States Department of Agriculture in the Great Plains states. Farm
management appeared for the first time as rural economics in the
catalog published in 1919. The work had now begun to broaden out
with courses in rural sociology as well as in farm organization,
farm accounting, marketing, and rural economics. Professor Filley
has remained in charge of this department to the present day.
Poultry husbandry was one of the new lines of
work taken up in these later years. Practically every farm raised
some chickens, but heretofore there had been little emphasis
placed on the scientific aspects of the subject. The first courses
in poultry husbandry were listed in the catalog published in 1916.
There were just four courses, including elementary poultry
management (two courses), poultry practice, and incubation and
brooding, all of them listed under animal husbandry. They were
given by Prof. M. E. Dickson who had joined the faculty of the
college in 1915. Prof. F. E. Mussehl became professor of poultry
husbandry in 1917, succeeding Professor Dickson. Poultry husbandry
was listed for the first time as a separate department in the
catalog published in 1922.
Agricultural education, or the preparation of
young men and women to teach agriculture and home economics in the
high schools of the state, had received some attention for several
years as a collegiate course. It will be recalled that
such a course had been given by Professor Davisson of the
School of Agriculture. This course was continued by his
successors, Prof. Fred M. Hunter and Prof. H. E. Bradford. An
impetus was given to this work in 1913, when the Legislature
passed the Shumway Act providing state aid for high schools
teaching agriculture, manual training, and home economics. But the
great incentive came when Congress in 1917 passed the Smith-Hughes
Act, providing federal aid.
In the catalog published in 1918, two courses
in agricultural education were offered, one the history of
vocational education, and the other agricultural education. The
next year there were four courses, vocational education,
organization and administration of agricultural education, method
of agricultural teaching, and supervised teaching. In 1920 the
work was known as agricultural and home economics education,
instruction in teaching home economics having been added. By 1922
the work in this department had grown to eleven courses. In 1922
the name of the department was changed to vocational
education.
The department of forestry which had been
under the College of Agriculture since its reorganization in 1909
was abolished in 1915. Nebraska had no virgin forests of
consequence and there were not the same opportunities for
development as prevailed in states like Colorado. Prof. W. J.
Morrill, who had succeeded Prof. F. J. Phillips after his death in
1911, had received a call to the Colorado Agricultural College. It
must not be thought that this department did not serve a useful
purpose in Nebraska. The fact that Nebraska was a treeless state
gave this department a fruitful opportunity to urge the planting
of trees in the western part of the state, but in deciding to
stress those lines of agriculture of greater commercial importance
to Nebraska, the education of trained foresters was left to other
states.
It is hardly possible to enumerate all the
changes that took place during these years, either in the
departments or
AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING
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Miller
