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Hatch Act of 1887
Signed on March 2, 1887, the Hatch Act gave the United States its network of agricultural experiment stations, allowing the nation, through research, to become the most effective and efficient producer of food and fiber in the world.
The Hatch Act attacked general ignorance of growing conditions, helping to make American agricultural producers more productive. Research findings from experiment station systems across the country revised farming methods to fit the diverse geography of America and improved farm animals to meet public needs. Hatch Act funding has resulted in a federal-state research partnership that has largely removed the specter of hunger and the drudgery of subsistence agriculture production.
Think of the Hatch Act as a sturdy bridge between the Morrill Act, signed by President Lincoln in 1862, and the Smith-Lever Act of 1914. The Morrill Act gave states authorization to sell public lands to create land-grant universities, which were to teach agriculture and the mechanical arts. The Smith-Lever Act resulted in the states' Cooperative Extension Service, which ultimately took the findings of researchers from the universities to the fields of farmers.
The Hatch Act of 1887, revised in 1955, states that experiment stations should, "conduct original and other research, investigations and experiments bearing directly on and contributing to the establishment and maintenance of a permanent and effective agricultural industry. . . "
From its inception the system was designed to meet the needs of agriculture in specific areas and regions. But research findings seldom benefit just one location. More often they have application in many places, and some breakthroughs resulting directly from Hatch Act funding have literally benefitted every man, woman, and child in the United States and much of the world.
