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Presidential Address Opportunities, Obligations, and Objectives 1
Author(s) -
Kramer Herbert H.
Publication year - 1967
Publication title -
agronomy journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.752
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1435-0645
pISSN - 0002-1962
DOI - 10.2134/agronj1967.00021962005900010001x
Subject(s) - presidential address , presidential system , citation , library science , political science , operations research , management , computer science , law , public administration , mathematics , economics , politics
Companion acts, such as the Hatch Act in 1887 for research and the Smith-Lever Act in 1914 for extension, followed and created opportunities for agricultural development whose far-reaching effects have amazed and are still the envy of the entire civilized world. In their original concepts, these programs were extremely broad, and highly applied. The Hatch Act which established the State Agricultural Experiment Stations states, "It shall be the object and duty of the State Agricultural Experiment Stations . . . to conduct original and other researches, investigations, and experiments, bearin~g directly on and contributing to the establishment and maintenance of a permanent and effective agricultural industry of the United States, including researches basic to the problem of agriculture in its broadest aspects, and such investigations as have for their purpose the development and improvement of the rural home life and the maximum contribution by agriculture to the welfare of the consumer, as may be deemed advisable, having due regard to the varying conditions and needs of the respective states." As of that time, the opportunities, obligations, and objectives for all those affected by the Hatch Act were clearly spelled out. In a very real sense, the United States Department of Agriculture and the various departments in our nation’s Schools and Colleges of Agriculture are the direct outgrowth of these early Agricultural Acts. And, indeed, the American Society of Agronomy itself has its roots here-as have most of our professional agricultural societies. It is not our purpose here to document hove completely, or how faithfully, agricultural researchers, teachers, and extension wo.rkers have adhered to the obligations and objectives set forth so long ago. Suffice it to say that American Agriculture today is one of the miracles of the present century. Early advances in agriculture which created small improvements in efficiency began to release a few people into other agriculturally related or non-agricultural enterprises and set the stage for an incipient industrial revolution whose feedback into agriculture created an upward spiral of increasing efficiency which, even now, is still accelerating.