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5

CENTURY
OF
SERVICE

the first 100 years of

THE UNITED STATES

DEPARTMENT OF

AGRICULTURE

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CENTURY
OF

SERVICE

the first 100 years of

THE UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF
AGRICULTURE

CENTENNIAL COMMITTEE

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

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The Committee on Agricultural History was appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture in Memorandum 1440, to give direction and leadership to a study necessary to the preparation of a history commemorating the Centennial of the United States Department of Agriculture, to establish policies and standards applicable to such a publication, and to provide guidance in its development.

Membership of the Committee is:

Nathan M. Koffsky,

Administrator, Economic Research Service
(Chairman).

Oris V. Wells,

Served as Chairman prior to his retirement as
Administrator, Agricultural Marketing Service.

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FOREWORD

ORVILLE L. FREEMAN

Secretary of Agriculture

Agriculture in the United States has progressed from an economy of scarcity to an economy of abundance in the space of a hundred years. This profound change may be measured in a number of ways. For example, less than 9 percent of our labor force is engaged in agriculture today, as compared with 20 to 40 percent in much of Western Europe, over 45 percent in the Soviet Union, and 70 to 80 percent in some parts of the world. Agriculture has contributed labor and capital to the other parts of the American economy, and has been a major force in our economic growth.

Three laws adopted by this Nation in 1862-the act creating the Department of Agriculture, the Homestead Act, and the Morrill Land Grant College Act-have helped the American farmer make invaluable contributions to our agricultural productivity. Illustrations of contributions by the Department of Agriculture appear in After A Hundred Years: The Yearbook of Agriculture 1962. Other examples appear in this volume. However, the basic purpose of this history is to outline the Department's organizational development and its response to changing conditions-national and international, scientific and economic.

We have a responsibility to the future, a responsibility which we can best understand if we have a knowledge of our past. Our first responsibility is to the American farmer and the American people. In helping the farmer to meet his responsibility of providing for basic human needs for food and fiber we contribute basically to the high level of living in this Nation. Our responsibility to the American people includes concern for the rest of the world, and the use of our abundance and knowledge to help assure peace and freedom. Our natural resources-land, water, forests-are a responsibility of today and tomorrow.

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Yet, numerous and heavy as these responsibilities may seem, they are not new. They have their roots in the past. United States Department of Agriculture has helped the American farmer meet these responsibilities for the past one hundred years. This is that story. Our past tells us why we can look forward with confidence to the future.

February 1963

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