EVENTS LEADING UP TO SMITH-LEVER ACT AND COOPERATIVE EXTENSION

1860s: Various methods used in dissemination of information to farms, including Farmer Institutes, the first of which was held in Kansas in 1868; agricultural fairs; corn schools and shows; agricultural trains, which carried displays, speakers, sleeper cars for speakers, etc. By 1906 such trains are being used in 21 states, peaking in 1911 with 71 trains.

1902: John D. Rockefeller established the General Education Board, which was to play a big role in helping finance early extension-type work when state funds were scarce.

1903-1904: Boll weevil crosses from Mexico into Texas.

1903: Dr. Seaman A. Knapp submits a proposal to establish a demonstration farm under the auspices of the US Department of Agriculture. The success of the first demonstration on the Texas farm of Walter C. Porter led Congress to appropriate $250,000 to combat the boll weevil, $40,000 of which was assigned to Dr. Knapp to establish more demonstrations.

Nov. 12, 1906: First county agent in the United States, W.C. Stallings. is appointed to serve Smith County, Texas. Boll Weevil damage was so severe in Texas and Louisiana that businessmen volunteered to help pay a large share of expenses in employing agents.

1906: North Carolina becomes the first southern state to hold institutes for women. The following year there were 50 institutes for women in 38 counties.

1907: With support from the General Education Board, Knapp sends C.R. Hudson to North Carolina to initiate demonstration work. Hudson encountered resistance from the Department of Agriculture, which had its own demonstration work going and moved from Raleigh to Statesville.

Nov. 18, 1907: James A. Butler is appointed to first North Carolina county agent.

Nov. 20, 1907: Butler arranges the first demonstration with J.F. Eagles, Rt. 1 Statesville (2.5 acres corn; 2 acres cotton). Butler died after only three months on the job, during which time he arranged for 30 demonstrations in Iredell County.

1908: Agricultural Experiment Station, with cooperation of Norfolk and Southern Railway, operates Corn Special train through eastern part of state. Agent Hudson moves office from Statesville to Raleigh campus.

1909: North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (now NCSU) signs a memorandum of understanding with USDA to work cooperatively on demonstration work, the first such agreement in the nation.
This is a historic fact of considerable significance.

July 1, 1909: I.O. Schaub begins work as boys' corn club agent.

1910: By this time North Carolina has 46 agents in 43 counties.

1911: General Assembly passes act authorizing boards of county commissioners to make appropriations in cooperation with farmers' demonstration work. Farmers, themselves, make contribution to support this work.

1911: Schaub hires Jane S. McKimmon, who had been on farmers' institute circuit for two years, to head girls' club work.

1912: Home demonstration agents work with girls' tomato clubs in 14 counties.

1913: College President D.H. Hill reports following to trustees: "The Extension Department of the College, under the leadership of Professor Schaub and Mrs. McKimmon...has brought the college into closer touch with the people of the state than any other instrumentality yet tried."

May 8, 1914: President Woodrow Wilson signs the Smith-Lever Act authorizing cooperative extension work between the Land-Grant Colleges and USDA. The act makes provisions for extension agents to provide instruction and practical demonstrations in agriculture and home economics to persons not attending college. The system was to be organized at county, state and federal levels. The act bears the names of the two congressmen who introduced it: Senator Hoke Smith of Georgia and Representative A.F. Lever of South Carolina. B.A. Calgary becomes the first director of the Division of Extension Work.

1915: Extension staff includes 71 farm demonstration agents and 37 home demonstration agents. First annual report indicates agents conducted over 4,000 demonstrations.




THE SMITH-LEVER ACT
MAY 8, 1914

The Eighty-Fifth Anniversary of Cooperative Extension

The thirst for knowledge in rural America around the turn of the century gave rise to what is regarded as one of the most responsible and ingenious pieces of legislation the United States Congress has ever adopted - The Smith-Lever Act. This legislation, signed by President Woodrow Wilson on May 8, 1914, authorized cooperative extension work between the Land- Grant Colleges and the United States Department of Agriculture. The Act bears the names of the congressmen who introduced it, Senator Hoke Smith of Georgia and Representative A.F. Lever of South Carolina.

Although Smith-Lever authorized the organization of Cooperative Extension at the county, state and federal levels, it did not mark the beginning of the extension education movement. Educational demonstrations had been used extensively prior to 1914, and North Carolina was at the forefront of the development and use of the practical teaching method. The first demonstration in North Carolina was arranged November 20, 1907 with Iredell County farmer J.F. Eagles.

North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts which is North Carolina State University, earned a place in agricultural extension history when, in 1909, President D.H. Hill signed the first Memorandum of Understanding between a Land-Grant College and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to work cooperatively "to improve and aid agriculture." Today, on the 85th anniversary of the Smith-Lever Act, North Carolina Cooperative Extension remains at the forefront of the extension movement. With highly trained campus and field faculty and staff, supported by over 26,000 citizen volunteer advisors, Cooperative Extension is responding to the continuing thirst for knowledge with innovative programs that address the critical issues faced by rural and urban people, farm and non-farm, youth and adult, at the individual, family and community levels.

THE LEGISLATIVE TIME LINE OF THE NORTH CAROLINA COOPERATIVE EXTENSION

1862: President Abraham Lincoln signs into law the first Morrill Act, "an act donating public lands to the several states and territories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and mechanic arts." With this signing, the Morrill, Act, commonly referred to as the Land Grand Act, gives each state 30,000 acres of public land for each senator and representative according to the 1860 census. These lands are to be sold and the profits from those sales used in perpetual endowment for the support of Colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts in each state. The institutions will provide members of the working class with a liberal yet practical education. In North Carolina, the land-grant funds were originally used to support the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

1877: Largely due to the efforts of University President Kemp P. Battle, the North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station becomes only the second agricultural experiment station in the nation - a full 10 years before the federal government supports such a plan.

1887: The Hatch Act provides for the creation of agricultural experiment stations for scientific research at each of the institutions founded as a result of the Morrill Act. The Hatch Act furthers "...the policy of the Congress to promote the efficient production, marketing, distribution, and utilization of products of the farm as essential to the health and welfare of peoples and to promote a sound and prosperous agriculture and rural life as indispensable to the maintenance of maximum employment and national prosperity and security. It is also the intent of Congress to assure agriculture a position in research equal to that of industry, which will aid in maintaining and equitable balance between agriculture and other segments of our economy."

March 7, 1887: While North Carolina is a leader in establishing an agricultural experiment station, controversy surrounds the use of land-grant money in Chapel Hill. A group of Raleigh leaders and legislators combine their efforts and the funds provided by the Hatch Act to establish the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts in Raleigh, now known as NC State University.

1890: The Second Morrill Act extends access to higher education by providing endowments for all land grants and by allowing for the creation of 17 new land-grant colleges, including North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, for African -American students.

1903-04: Dr. Seaman A. Knapp sets up a demonstration program that will play a key role in extension work. His efforts in Texas aim at improving cultivation practices at a time when the boll weevil poses a serious threat.

1907: North Carolina's extension efforts begin with the appointment of James A. Butler as the state's first county agent.

1909: N.C. State officials sign a memorandum of understanding for cooperative demonstration work with the U.S. Debarment of Agriculture. The agreement provides for the college to support the development of Farmers' Boys' Clubs, or Corn Clubs, the forerunner of 4-H.

1914: The need for information dissemination grows. The Smith-Lever Act establishes Cooperative Extension in partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the land-grant universities "in order to aid in diffusing among the people of the United States useful and practical information on subjects relating to agriculture, home economics, and rural energy, and to encourage the application of the same..." The act also requires that federal funds be matched by local funds. This, the tripartite role of federal, state, and local government is established.

August 27, 1914: North Carolina's Extension Service officially begins when the memorandum of understanding with USDA, N.C. State College, and the state department of agriculture is signed. North Carolina has 66 farm demonstrations agents and 32 home demonstration agents.

North Carolina's Extension Directors