A Short History
Land Grant Colleges were established by the Morrill Land-Grant College Act of 1862. In 1887, the Hatch Act was signed into law, creating an Agricultural Experiment Station established under the direction of each Land Grant College. In that same year the NHAES was established as a department of the NH College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts at Dartmouth College. However, during the next 20 years fewer than 40 agricultural students had been graduated. Unhappy with this performance, Benjamin Thompson, a Durham farmer and businessman, willed his farm to the state in 1856 to establish a school to promote the cause of agriculture. By 1893, the New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, along with the Agricultural Experiment Station, had moved from Hanover to Durham.
Money from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (as Hatch funds), combined with required state matching dollars, supported the Experiment Stations and was used at the discretion of AES directors to support teaching and research. But in 1899, the U.S. Attorney General ruled that Hatch funds could not be applied to any expenses related to academic instruction. Thus, AES efforts were directed to research and service. Due largely to conditions resulting from the Great Depression, Congress passed the Bankhead-Jones act of 1935 which established formula funding for the Agricultural Experiment Stations (rather than yearly re-allocations of uncertain dollars). Then, in 1962, the McIntire-Stennis Forestry Research Act was passed to encourage forestry research at Land Grant Colleges. As of 1997, all Agricultural Experiment Stations are mandated to expend 25% of the formula funds on multi-state/multi-institutional projects.
As a result of their history, Agricultural Experiment Stations exist within and as part of Land Grant Colleges, but are required to report to Congress through the USDA. Many of these reporting requirements are outside of (and independent of) normal University procedures. By accepting Federal support, all Agricultural Experiment Stations agree to support and foster the mission of the AES. Essentially, this mission is to “generate knowledge and technology to support a highly diversified agricultural and natural resource system that produced, processes, and delivers food, fiber and forestry products for citizens”. The first priority of each AES is “to conduct research that helps citizens make the most effective use of the state’s resources in economically competitive, environmentally sound, and sustainable food and agricultural systems while preserving and enhancing the quality of life for the work force engaged in agricultural and forestry enterprises, their families and communities”. Latitude exists in interpreting our mandate such that neither basic research nor traditional practices are excluded from receiving support.
The NH Agricultural Experiment Station
Mission
The object and duty of the state agricultural experiment stations is to conduct original and other research, investigations, and experiments bearing directly on and contributing to the establishment and maintenance of a permanent and effective agricultural industry, including research basic to the problems of agriculture…and the maximum contribution by agriculture to the welfare of the consumer…with due regard to the varying conditions and needs of the respective states. (Federal Hatch Act of 1887)
The NEW HAMPSHIRE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION (AES) was established in 1887 when the General Court accepted the provisions of the Hatch Act of that year. In 1962, the State accepted the provisions of the McIntire-Stennis Cooperative Forestry Research Act. The research programs required by those Acts are carried out in the UNH College of Life Sciences and Agriculture with joint State-Federal support.
