Rhode Island Agricultural Experiment Station: Homer Wheeler (Rec. Gr. 73)

Historical Information

As a land-grant university founded under the guidelines of the Morrill Land Grant Act, the University of Rhode island had and has an obligation to provide educational opportunities to the people of the state in the areas of "agricultural and mechanic arts". The meaning of those terms has changed drastically since the passage of the Morrill Act in 1862, but the obligation remains. As part of that obligation, each state has also established an agricultural experiment station, usually in conjunction with the land-grant institution, to conduct agricultural research and to provide technical assistance to the farmers of the state.

Although the Morrill Land-Grant Act was passed in 1862, Rhode Island had no experiment station until 1888 and no agricultural college until 1892. Prior to this, the proceeds of the Morrill Fund had gone to Brown University to provide agricultural education to the future farmers of Rhode Island. Brown, though willing to accept the money, never seemed willing or able through twenty-five years of off-and-on negotiations with the state to provide the agricultural education required by the Morrill Act. Finally, the state legislature, in response to the passage of the federal Hatch Act providing federal funds to establish agricultural experiment stations in each of the states, enacted legislation to create a state agricultural school and an agricultural experiment station in 1888. A board of Managers was promptly appointed, which in turn appointed Charles 0. Flagg as Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station. The school and station thus created were without faculty, facilities, or land. (See Herman Eschenbacher, The University of Rhode Island: A History of Land Grant Education in Rhode Island, New York, 1967: Chapters 1-4 give a detailed description and analysis of the events leading to the creation of the agricultural school and experiment station.)

In September of 1888, the Board of Managers purchased the 140 acre Oliver Watson farm in the village of Kingston for $5,000 as the site of the station and school. That 140 acre farm is the core of the present day University of Rhode Island campus and the Watson family farmhouse still stands just to the east of the University Library. Taft Laboratory was completed in early 1890 as the headquarters of the Agricultural Experiment Station, and College Hall and Boarding Hall were completed by late in the same year to house the agricultural school. John Washburn had been appointed principal of the school in 1889 and it opened its doors to students for the first time in the fall of 1890. In the spring of 1892, the agricultural school became the Rhode Island college of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts.

From the beginning, the College and the Station were closely allied, but also had distinct responsibilities. Station staff taught in the College and graduates of the College were often hired as assistants in the Station's research program. The Station, however, had a mission which was in many ways distinct from that of the College. As a condition of its receiving federal support, the Station staff was required to conduct agricultural research and experimentation and to publish the results of that research in its "Bulletin" so that farmers of the state could benefit.

As the Station became more firmly established, it began to assume additional responsibilities. For example, station staff were made responsible for enforcing state laws regulating the sale of commercial fertilizers and animal feeds in the state. This included collecting license fees, collecting and analyzing fertilizer and feed samples to insure that the products contained the ingredients they were alleged to contain, and recommending for prosecution those companies which violated state laws.

Despite its venture into law enforcement, however, the staff of the station never lost sight of its primary mission, which was to expand the borders of scientific knowledge in the area of agriculture. The focus of research changed as the needs of the farmers, both in Rhode Island and across the nation, shifted into new areas of interest. Whereas until the 1920's researchers had concentrated on ways to increase agricultural productivity, by the early 1930's they had begun to turn their attention to seeking solutions to "rural social and economic problems and expanding market opportunities" for farmers hard hit by the Great Depression (See Elisabeth Keiffer, The College of Resource Development, 1888-1988, Kingston, R.I., 1988) . World War II further influenced the direction and nature of research, as the Station concentrated on more practical projects such as "dehydration of fruits and vegetables, improved turf for military airports, and the development of insecticides and fungicides for use in the Pacific Theatre." (Keiffer, p. 17).

By war's end, the nature of the research carried on by the Station had changed again in response to the changing needs and demands of agriculture. As the number of farmers in Rhode Island and across the nation declined and the number of agricultural related businesses grew, requests for assistance began to come increasingly from non-farmers. Research in the areas of commercial nurseries and the development of turf grasses for use on golf courses and athletic fields became a staple of the Station's research program.

In the 1960's and 1970's the focus of research again was modified as the perceived needs and demands of the nation changed. As economic support increased for environmental and ecological research, researchers at the Experiment Station naturally turned to the state's marine resources as a fruitful area of investigation. Fisheries and Marine Technology and aquaculture became and remain significant areas of study for the Experiment Station and the College of Resource Development. By the end of the decade of the 1970's, the College and the Station were involved in research in areas as diverse as environmental pathology, ornamental and garden plants, and energy production. The scope of research and service, in short, had gone far beyond the borders of Rhode island and had achieved national and international importance.

The strength and diversity of the Experiment Station's research efforts continued to grow throughout the 1980's. As the Station celebrated its centennial in 1988, it could look back on 100 years of service to the state and the nation in the area of agricultural research. Though it little resembles the department that was established in Taft Hall on Kingston Hill a century ago, it has remained true to the original mission.