Issued in furtherance of cooperative extension work in agriculture and home economics, Acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, LeRoy D. Luft, Director of Cooperative Extension System, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho 83844. The University of Idaho provides equal opportunity in education and employment on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age, gender, disability, or status as a Vietnam-era veteran, as required by state and federal laws. Banquet in the dairy barn for Old Violet - Porche Ormsby, 1923. Photo courtesy of University of Idaho historical photograph collection — Table of Contents — Preface ............................................................... 1 Chapter 1 ........................................................... 3 A Partnership is Created Chapter 2 ......................................................... 19 Finding a Focus Chapter 3 ......................................................... 49 Enduring the ’20s Chapter 4 ......................................................... 69 The Great Depression Chapter 5 ......................................................... 93 War and Post-war Chapter 6 ....................................................... 121 Building New Technologies Chapter 7 ....................................................... 137 Changes Accelerate in the 1960s Chapter 8 ....................................................... 157 A Billion-dollar Industry Chapter 9 ....................................................... 175 Completing the First Century Appendix ....................................................... 195 Index ............................................................. 265 About the Author ........................................... 277 Preface From its formation in 1889, the University of Idaho has endeavored to serve the agricultural interests of the Gem State. Farm families and agriculture-re- lated industries supported the university as it struggled to establish its re- search and Extension programs on a statewide basis. When agricultural problems occur, Idahoans turn to the University of Idaho College of Agricul- ture for help. Time and again the problem-solving resources of the UI Col- lege of Agriculture have helped the people of Idaho overcome difficulties and achieve significant progress. In the following pages, I review the record of the excellent cooperation that has linked Idaho’s agricultural industry and the UI College of Agriculture. During a century of working together, rural people and University educators have forged a productive and harmonious partnership. How this partnership has developed through ten decades is my central theme in this history. The primary sources used are University of Idaho papers and records, and ar- ticles printed in the Idaho Farmer-Stockman (and its predecessors, Gem State Ruralist and Idaho Farmer). Many of the UI papers I used were collected and assembled by Maurice E. Johnson. Because of his diligence, useful historical materials have been preserved. Papers that he rescued from oblivion include interviews Marion Hepworth conducted with pioneer rural women and remi- niscences of early-day Extension workers. These reminiscences were written in the 1950s in response to requests made by J. Warren Barber, who wanted to compile the candid recollections of old-timers who helped establish the Extension work in Idaho. In the University of Idaho archives, I consulted several collections of papers dealing with College of Agriculture programs. Especially interesting were the scrapbooks of E. J. Iddings, long-time dean of the College. Bill Stellmon shared with me tapes of interviews he conducted several years ago with retired College of Agriculture faculty members. These interviews provide valuable information about Idaho agriculture and the University of Idaho during the past 50 years. I hope it will be possible in the years ahead to add new recordings to this important oral history series. Historical facts up to 1960 were compiled by C. W. Hungerford in his His- torical Review of the Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station (Idaho Agricul- tural Research Progress Report, No. 36, April 1960). Information about UI 1 entomologists and entomology projects is well presented by A. R. Gittins and D. R. Scott, History of Entomology at the University of Idaho (1989). The history of the Parma Agricultural Experiment Station is told fully and in a lively, interesting manner by DeLance Franklin in a series of newspaper articles, beginning with “Farmers’ fight against weevil led to Parma research center” (The Idaho Free Press and The News-Tribune Feb. 24, 1976, Nampa and Caldwell, Idaho). I am certain that many present and former residents of Idaho have additional information concerning the UI College of Agriculture’s help to the state’s ag- ricultural industry. If you have such information, please share it with us. Address your communications to: Ag College History, c/o Agricultural Com- munications Center, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho 83844-2332. Clifton Anderson 2 Chapter 1 A Partnership is Created A nine-member Board of Regents met for the first time April 25, 1889, and organized the University of Idaho. At that meeting, regents must have dis- cussed two laws passed by Congress. What would be the educational mis- sion of the new university? What financial help could the federal government provide? To deal with these questions, the founders had to con- sider the provisions of the Morrill Act, passed in 1862, and the Hatch Act, enacted in 1887. The Morrill Act established the U.S. land-grant educational system. The fed- eral government would use a portion of its holdings of public land to foster education in agriculture and mechanical arts. To qualify for a land grant, the government required a state or territorial educational institution “to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts — in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of life.” Responding to the financial inducements of the Morrill Act, state govern- ments in all sections of the country set up new college and university pro- grams. State educational institutions became centers for scientific research, and they initiated programs for the instruction of agriculturists, engineers, and scientists in many academic specialties. The Hatch Act supplemented the Morrill Act by providing funds earmarked for agricultural research. The act encouraged each state or territory to oper- ate an experiment station at its land-grant institution. By establishing an ag- UI campus early in the century. Roy E. Taylor Photo Collection 3 A Partnership is Created ricultural experiment station and complying with the provisions of the Hatch Act, the University of Idaho would be assured an annual appropriation of $15,000. In order to obtain this subsidy, the Board of Regents voted on Feb- ruary 26, 1892, to immediately organize the Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station on the university campus at Moscow. When the University of Idaho opened for classes on October 3, 1892, the experiment station had been in operation for seven months. University Financial help from the federal government was of Gains critical importance to the University of Idaho in its early years. Congress in 1890 enacted a second Federal Morrill Act, providing an award of $15,000 a year Funds to each land-grant college for instructional pro- grams. This assistance would increase in the years ahead. In the future, funds for agricultural experiment stations would be augmented also. In its first year of operation, the University of Idaho could depend on grants of $30,000 from the federal government — $15,000 in Morrill Act funds and $15,000 in Hatch Act funds. Grants increased in subsequent years. The federal government was being more generous than the state government in providing support to the University, complained Joseph P. Blanton, the sec- ond UI president. “The largest (state) appropriation that has ever been given to the institution is $6,000 a year. The federal government, on the other hand, gives $39,000 annually,” Blanton said in 1898. During the 1800s, science and technology trans- Science formed many aspects of American life. This was Offers the century of the telegraph and the telephone, Bright steam-driven ships and railroads, petroleum-pow- Prospects ered internal combustion engines, and factories geared for mass production. Biological research- ers achieved life-saving improvements in surgery, An early horticulture class (about 1899) was photographed in the greenhouse. Historical Photograph Collection, UI Library, 1-210-10 4 Chapter 1 medicine, and nutrition. Investigators were beginning to understand micro- organisms and their relationships to other living things. Scientists created a modern, pragmatic approach that was at one and the same time visionary (optimistically looking forward to the systematic, step-by-step solution of major problems) and practical (recognizing the complexity of persistent problems and the need for ongoing appraisal and refinement of scientific knowledge). In Idaho as elsewhere, people had high expectations about science’s ability to improve the standard of life. Idaho’s population in 1890 was predomi- nantly rural, and rural life was beset with problems. Science offered possible solutions to pressing difficulties encountered by farmers who settled Idaho. New varieties of wheat, oats, and other crops were