Planting the Seeds of Research: How Americas Ultimate Investment Transformed Agriculture

By Louis A. Ferleger

‘Planting the Seeds of Research’ explores why by the beginnings of the twentieth century the United States dominated agricultural production worldwide. The thesis is that the ultimate investments made by the United States Department of Agriculture and State governments created the research structure that made American agriculture spectacularly successful. The social commitment, by business, government and farmers built the productive capabilities that generated sustainable prosperity in American agriculture. The ultimate investment in agriculture enabled Americans over time to spend less of their disposable income on food and more on other goods and services, and compete in international agricultural markets.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Anthem Press
• Release date: Jan 31, 2020
• ISBN: 9781785272646

Book preview

Planting the Seeds of Research

Planting the Seeds of Research

How America’s Ultimate Investment Transformed Agriculture

Louis A. Ferleger

Anthem Press

An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company

www.anthempress.com

This edition first published in UK and USA 2020

by ANTHEM PRESS

75–76 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8HA, UK

or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK

and

244 Madison Ave #116, New York, NY 10016, USA

Copyright © Louis A. Ferleger 2020

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019955637

ISBN-13: 978-1-78527-262-2 (Hbk)

ISBN-10: 1-78527-262-4 (Hbk)

ISBN-13: 978-1-78527-265-3 (Pbk)

ISBN-10: 1-78527-265-9 (Pbk)

This title is also available as an e-book.

To William Lazonick and Jay Mandle,

with gratitude

CONTENTS

List of Tables

Preface and Acknowledgments

Introduction: The Anatomy of The Ultimate Investment

1. Uplifting American Agriculture: Experiment Station Scientists and the Office of Experiment Stations in the Early Years after the Hatch Act

2. Higher Education for an Innovative Economy: Land-Grant Colleges and the Managerial Revolution in America

3. Arming Agriculture: How the USDA’s Top Managers Promoted Agricultural Development

4. Transatlantic Travails: German Experiment Stations and the Transformation of American Agriculture

5. European Agricultural Development and Institutional Change: German Experiment Stations, 1870–1920

6. The Managerial Revolution and the Developmental State: The Case of U.S. Agriculture

Bibliography

Index

TABLES

1.1 Distribution of U.S. experiment station experiments, by region, 1892–1909 (percentage)

1.2 Distribution of experiment stations with regions and the United States, 1892–1909 (percentage)

1.3 Distribution of experiment station experiments within regions and the United States, by periods (percentage)

2.1 Percent of 17-year-old population graduating from high schools

2.2 Actual and projected enrollments by course in land-grant colleges, 1894–1914

6.1 Total farms and acreage, United States, 1890–1990

6.2 Farm output per labor-hour, 1910–86

6.3 Cooperative extension funds, by source, 1915–88

6.4 Federal agricultural research organizations, 1862–1953

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In 1887, the U.S. Congress declared that national prosperity and security depended on a sound and prosperous agriculture and rural life. To this end, the Hatch Act promised to make it 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 our peoples. The Hatch Act was just one of myriad ways in which the American developmental state turned the United States into the fertile breadbasket of the world. The rise of American agricultural supremacy is a fascinating story, but it was no accident. Nor was it a consequence of the natural forces of free market competition. Instead, through a series of legislative acts that forged a collaborative relationship between the private sector, educational institutions, and governmental agencies at all levels, the American developmental state unleashed the full potential of American agriculture to ensure, as the Hatch Act promised, the health and welfare of our peoples.

Over the last four decades, I have explained how the developmental state fostered agriculture’s organizational foundations in articles about American agriculture. These articles are collected here in one place for the first time. The articles included in this volume appeared in various forms as presentations and published essays. Over the same period that I wrote them, American history survey textbooks have insufficiently described the full story of how America transformed its agricultural sector into an agricultural powerhouse. This is a paradox, because historically the vast majority of the world’s population has been farmers. Therefore, a society’s move from predominantly countryside to predominantly urban marked a major transition, and not until 1920 did the United States rank as less than 50 percent rural. If a unifying theme unites the following essays, it is that this transition was predicated on an active role for the state in facilitating the growth of organizations that conducted research critical to the success of U.S. agriculture. That is, the developmental state planted the seeds of research.

The story I tell focuses on the administrative history of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Office of U.S. Experiment Stations, and State and Regional Experiment Stations. The USDA and its agencies worked tirelessly to improve American agriculture. Their efforts transformed the agricultural sector and contributed significantly to high levels of agricultural productivity. As a result, American consumers could purchase food at lower and lower prices. American farmers, however, were not as fortunate as American consumers. As agricultural productivity increased because of improved technology and food processing many farmers left farming and moved to urban areas. The plight of American farmers is an important story but not the focus of this book.

I owe debts to many friends, colleagues, acquaintances, conference participants, and editors who have collectively and individually influenced my thinking and writing on agriculture. They have, whether they realize it or not, contributed to my work in numerous ways through their observations, criticism, and thoughtful remarks. I am especially grateful to William Lazonick, who coauthored Chapters 2 and 6. I also thank the editors of Agricultural History, Business and Economic History and The Journal of the Historical Society for permission to reprint previously published work. Similarly, I thank Thomas Summerhill and James Scott, editors of Transatlantic Rebels: Agrarian Radicalism in Comparative Context.

Matthew Lavallee and Jamie M. Grischkan helped me in many small and large ways—I am very grateful for the research support and suggestions. The book is dedicated to William Lazonick and Jay Mandle, both of whom I have coauthored and collaborated with over the years. Through our conversations and collaborative work, Jay and Bill have inspired and pushed me in numerous ways, serving as models of intellectual rigor, vigor, and generosity. I owe each a special debt.

Lastly, this book is also dedicated to those unacknowledged and critical public servants whose work on behalf of American agriculture in the USDA and other subsequent agencies made it possible by the early decades of the twentieth century for America to become the largest and most successful agricultural producer in the world. Remembering the contributions of their expertise is all the more important in an age when experts are disregarded and the noble ideal of public service itself is under sustained attack.

INTRODUCTION

The Anatomy of The Ultimate Investment

World history will record the twentieth century as the American century. For the period taken as a whole, the United States dominated the twentieth century economically as well as politically and culturally. What was the secret of American economic success? Abundant natural resources played a role. So too did individual creativity and entrepreneurship. But the United States’ emergence by the middle of the twentieth century as the world’s most successful economy relied primarily on one key ultimate investment—the social commitment to build the productive capabilities that generated sustainable prosperity in American agriculture. The ultimate investment in agriculture enabled Americans over time to spend less of their disposable income on food and more on other goods and services.

After the end of the Civil War the American government spent significant sums to turn the United States into the world’s greatest agricultural power. The investment in improving agricultural productivity was so successful that it was the ultimate investment of the American developmental state. As the following chapters reveal, this ultimate investment consisted of the creation of a nationwide network of agricultural experiment stations and land-grant colleges. Much of it was directed by a new agency at the federal level: the Department of Agriculture. Although founded in 1862, the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) development into a powerful organization coincided with the managerial revolution in industry. This is significant, because the USDA and land-grant colleges developed organizational capabilities as sophisticated as those in the nation’s largest private enterprises. This fueled the transformation of American agriculture in ways that have not always been recognized and enabled Americans to enjoy higher standards of living. Such investments in productive and managerial capabilities paid off in higher quality goods and services at lower costs for consumers. They also raised the standards of living of the people who contributed their skills and effort to produce those products. This book tells that story.

If an ultimate investment sounds too good to be true, all we need to look at is how, during the course of the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries the United States started to become the richest nation in the world and the largest and most successful producer of agricultural products. America’s ultimate investment in agriculture expanded the productive capabilities of the sector and generated an abundance of high-quality food at lower costs that translated into lower food prices. And if, in the wake of challenges from new competitors abroad, the United States seems in danger of losing its dominant position, we should ask whether the causes can be found in America’s failure to increase its ultimate investment in American agriculture.

Agriculture has been, and remains, very important to the American economy. Besides providing Americans with low-cost sources of food and various types of materials for clothing, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals, the United States continues to export vast quantities of agricultural products to the rest of the world. The critical primary agricultural products exported include grain products, soya products, and cotton, making up, depending on the year, over half of the value of these exports.

The ultimate investment that fueled the growth of American agriculture was built on a partnership between the state and private enterprise. To be sure, the hardworking farmer with his or her own internally generated funds contributed immensely to the nation’s superior agricultural record. Individual farmers, however, have had neither the financial means nor the scientific knowledge to develop new technologies that could dramatically improve productivity. Agricultural machinery and implements companies, such as International Harvester and John Deere, were successful in developing labor-saving machines that increased the amount of land that could be tilled, planted, and harvested by farmers. These agricultural machinery and implements companies succeeded during the first half of the twentieth century because they made investments, not only in production and distribution facilities but also in formidable managerial organizations.

American agriculture provides a concrete historical illustration of the fruits of ultimate investments. For the technological transformation of American agriculture, the building of organizational capabilities in the private sector was not enough. Public–private partnerships yielded impressive results. The continued growth in agriculture, moreover, also required scientific advances that could be embodied in the land and the products of the land to increase crop production. To secure higher gains from machines and scientific advances, the government undertook the education of farmers in the use of these new technologies, set aside resources for land-grant colleges, and supported the expansion and development of statewide and regional experiment stations. As a result, the expansion and development of organizational capabilities in American agriculture were important in opening up and expanding global markets for U.S. agricultural exports.

Farmers, of course, had to have the financial resources to buy improved farm machinery, tools, seeds, and fertilizers. Yet, before the 1930s, volatile farm prices meant that farmers rarely could rely on their own financial resources to invest in new farm practices and equipment. Even when loans were available, many farmers were reluctant to borrow for fear of losing their land. Indeed, some farmers who did borrow to make significant capital investments ended up in bankruptcy and had their land foreclosed.

Because of this confluence of factors, the development of new agricultural products, improved farm tools and equipment, and the provision of financial capital and monetary incentives that could enable and encourage farmers to invest in the higher yielding materials and machinery had to be undertaken by entities other than the farmers themselves. To some extent, private-sector businesses carried out these roles, especially in the development and diffusion of farm implements and machinery. Starting in the late nineteenth century, however, it was the government sector, not the private sector, which has been overwhelmingly responsible for the development of science for agriculture and the transfer of the advances to millions of farmers. Simply put, federal, state, and local governments made ultimate investments to boost the agricultural sector.

The key department for planning and coordinating the development and diffusion of these science-based technologies throughout the nation was the USDA, working with state experiment stations and publicly funded universities—the famous network of land-grant colleges that were endowed by the federal government through the Morrill Land Grant Acts of 1862 and 1890. Knowledge also flowed from the farmer to the government agencies. Improvements in seeds, fertilizers, disease control, as well as new product development required that the scientific community, largely based in the USDA, land-grant colleges, and state experiment stations, receive information back from farmers concerning their experiences under widely varying climatic and geological conditions.

Many Americans take it for granted that government has no business in the operation of the economy. Nowhere is such a notion so misinformed as in the case of the U.S. agricultural sector. The fact is that in the economic development of U.S. agriculture, governments at the federal, state, and county levels became deeply involved in developing new products and materials for agriculture