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I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute.
Early settlers relied on friends and close neighbors for information on practices that would improve their production. Neighbors of course provided the most immediate information as letters from the east took weeks or longer to reach what is now the Midwest and Plains.
Congressional passage of the Morrill Act in 1862 provided funds to establish state colleges close by and eventually those schools established extension offices where college teachers would come and travel once a month and hold meetings. Kansas State and Iowa State were the first institutions to introduce such offices.
That’s today’s American Agriculture History Minute. I’m Mark Oppold. Thanks for reading. I’ll see you next time.
