Overview

After their emergence as a distinct realm of professional scientific research in the nineteenth century, the agricultural sciences continued their impact in the first half of the twentieth century. Led by developments in genetics, animal nutrition, bacteriology, and agricultural chemistry, farmers were able to produce more food from existing lands, and also to extend their production into lands that had previously been beyond the realm of cultivation. As a consequence, successful agricultural production became increasingly dependent upon access to the information and capital associated with the agricultural sciences.

Background

Although most developments in nineteenth-century agricultural sciences originated in western Europe, three important pieces of legislation shifted the stage to the United States by the early twentieth century. The Hatch Act of 1887 provided funds for the establishment of agricultural experiment stations in each American state and...