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Cooperative Extension: A very brief history
1862 The Morrill Act endowed the University of Wisconsin to support instruction
in agriculture and the mechanical arts and to establish an agricultural
experiment station.
1890 Prof. S. M. Babcock demonstrated a quick, accurate way to test
milk for butterfat. He refused to patent his invention for personal gain, but
decided to share it freely with dairy farmers.
1909 The first agriculture experiment station was established at Spooner,
Washburn County, on 403 acres of sandy loam soil.
1912 The first county agent E. L. Luther was hired to work as a county
agriculturist in Oneida County. Expenses were shared 50-50 between the
county and the state.
1914 The Smith Lever Act provided support from USDA for extension functions
at the land grant institutions. This was the beginning of the three-way
partnership of state, county and federal governments Cooperative
Extension.
1917 World War I turned Extension into a disaster force, with Emergency Food
Agents hired to encourage more food production crops, victory gardens
and improved milk and poultry production.
1920s Many counties began to employ more agents to teach agriculture,
nutrition, youth development and home economics. Important agricultural
issues included eradicating bovine TB, farm management, transportation,
storage and marketing, cooperatives, nutrition, health and welfare.
1930s Erosion and pest control were critical concerns during the drought years of
the depression. Extension encouraged planting windbreaks, woodlots and
alfalfa to replace more erosive and drought-intolerant crops. Extension
helped with the rural electrification program, bringing federal loans for
cooperative power lines to some 5,500 farms in 1937 alone.
1940s Extension-run bureaus placed 172,200 people in canneries and on farms
to replace farmers and workers who served in the military. Thousands of
4H-ers worked on war production projects or replaced farmers who went
to war.
1950s The post war baby boom brought new programs in child development,
family relations and home furnishings. 4-H membership rose as well.
Programs were added in community, economic and natural resource
development. Extension helped transform the sandy, dust storm-ravaged
wasteland of Central Wisconsin into an important vegetable raising and
processing center.
1960s The federal War on Poverty enlisted Extension with programs designed to
assist women, minorities, the elderly and disadvantaged. The Expanded
Food and Nutrition Education Program began in 1968. Extension added
programs in public policy - land-use, agricultural production, dairy herd
improvement, farm management and marketing.
1970s Cooperative Extension programs focused on new priorities in farm and
agribusiness management, human health and nutrition, small business
and community economic development as well as education for
government and community leaders and for families.
1980s Changing economic conditions in rural America brought severe hardships
to many farm families. Extension responded with programs designed to
offer financial coping strategies and relieve family stress.
1990s Cooperative Extension built new partnerships with governmental and non-governmental
entities and learned to better demonstrate educational
outcomes to its partners and funding sources. Extension developed new
strategies for public policy education on dynamic issues such as land use.
2000s New relationships focused on distance learning and continued public
policy education are strong themes at the start of the new millennium.
For more information about the history of UW-Extension, visit the UW-Extension Web
site at: http://www.uwex.edu
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