Year

Precedent

1789

Congress creates Departments of State, Treasury, and War.

1793

Invention of cotton gin.

1825

Agriculture Committee, U.S. House of Representative established.

Agriculture Committee, U.S. Senate established.

1835

Henry Leavitt Ellsworth, appointed U.S. Commissioner of Patents; began collecting and distributing new varieties of seeds; known as founder of what became the USDA.

1839

Agricultural Division, Patent Office, Department of State: Compile agricultural statistics, collect and distribute seeds, report on regional crops, and use of chemicals in agriculture.

1849

Agricultural Division, Patent Office, Department of the Interior: creation of new department to handle domestic matters; transfer of Ag. Div. with similar functions.

1852

United States Agricultural Society formed.

1860

Farmers made up 58% of the labor force.

1862

Agricultural Act: United States Department of Agriculture established; President Lincoln, in an address to Congress, called the USDA the “People’s Department”.

Homestead Act: grant public land to small farmers at low cost.

Morrill Act: establish land-grant colleges for the benefit of agriculture.

1870

Farmers made up 47% of the labor force.

1875

First state agricultural experiment station established at Wesleyan University, CT.

1879

Creation of U.S. Geological Survey within Department of the Interior.

1880

Farmers made up 49% of the labor force; 1 in 4 were tenant farmers.

1887

Hatch Act: set up federal-state cooperation in agricultural research.

1888

Office of Experiment Stations established.

1889

USDA moved to Executive branch and given cabinet status.

Soil Survey established within Weather Bureau of USDA.

1890

Morrill Act: established equitable divisions of land grant funding for blacks; 16 new colleges were created in the South.

Farmers made up 43% of the labor force.

1894

Division of Agricultural Soil established in Weather Bureau of USDA.

Farmers’ Bulletin No. 20: “Washed soils: How to prevent and reclaim them” by Charles Dabney; milestone publication in soil conservation.

1899

Field mapping of soils began by USDA.

1900

Farmers made up 38% of the labor force.

1903

Wilbur and Orville Wright airplane flight (longest trial is 59 seconds and 852 feet).

1908

T. C. Chamberlain gives talks on “soil wastage”.

1910

Farmers made up 31% of the labor force.

1911

First Farm Bureau formed in Broome County, NY.

1914

Smith-Lever Act: sets up national extension service.

1920

Farmers made up 27% of the labor force. Soil classification system developed.

1925

Purnell Act: authorized funds to experiment stations for research on the economic and social problems in agriculture.

1928

Soil erosion is identified as a serious threat to agricultural productivity.

Mc Sweeney-Mc Nary Forest Research Act: authorized USDA to conduct research on favorable conditions of water flow and the prevention of erosion.

Buchanan Amendment: provided first Congressional appropriation to set up experiment stations to conduct soil erosion research operated by USDA.

Circular 33: Soil Erosion, A National Menace published by Hugh Hammond Bennett and W.R. Chapline.

Model A automobile launched.