Extension Celebrates Centennial on July 24th

For people younger than myself, it is hard to imagine a time when there was no search engine to go to when you wanted to know about something. It can also be hard for them to believe that, IF a person graduated from high school (and many times that was a big IF) there were not many career opportunities aside from staying at home and helping mom and dad make a living. In 1914, these were almost exclusively the conditions in our part of the country and across much of the rest of the nation. That is exactly the reason that the Cooperative Extension Service was created.

1914 is the year that the Smith-Lever Act was signed into law. I will not bore you with the ins-and-outs of the law specifically but essentially, the Smith-Lever Act called for a national system where research being conducted at the land-grant university in each state could be disseminated and shared with the rest of the citizens in the state who could not get away to attend college themselves. Where it is common practice now for several agencies to align with others to accomplish tasks, the Smith-Lever Act was one of the first to combine funding from the USDA, the land-grant university system, and county governments to accomplish the goals set forth in the Act.

Initially, the job of an extension agent was solely to help produce more food. Demonstration plots, insect scouting, yield trials and variety trials were all part of the initial extension agent's job with the understanding that it was too much of a task for a farmer to get to the university where these things were taking place but if the information could be brought to him or her and demonstrated on land similar to what he or she was taking care of, then adoption of the practice would be more likely. Eventually, the home demonstration agent (now referred to as the family and consumer sciences agent) was added to the extension force. This person was there to help farm families with things like canning, sewing, house maintenance and other things. Later it was determined that children could benefit from education and leadership skills taught at the land-grant university as well, so a 4-H agent was added to the roster too in order to help kids learn valuable skills needed to ensure not only a successful childhood but also a successful transition into adulthood.

The reason that I am mentioning all of this is that, as you may have already concluded, we are celebrating 100 years of the extension service. On July 24th, the Eastern Agricultural Research Center (also affiliated with Montana State University, our land-grant institution in Montana) will be holding their annual field day beginning at 8:30 AM. When the field day concludes, we would like to invite you to stay and help celebrate our 100th birthday. After the luncheon at the conclusion of the field day, everyone is invited to help us celebrate our birthday with some cake and refreshments. We are very proud of the fact that, as times have changed, the extension service has adapted and we appreciate the support given to us over these last 100 years.