
On July 2, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed into law the Morrill Act, which granted to states a quantity of federal lands to be sold for the purpose of creating colleges “for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts.” Thus began the biggest program of public higher education that the world has ever seen—and along with it the advancement of conservation education, research and outreach.
The act is named for Justin Smith Morrill, a congressman and later senator from Vermont. Morrill believed that the condition of agriculture in the U.S. was declining and saw practical education as the key to reversing that trend. Morrill believed in two principles of higher education—that it needed to be accessible to the general public, not just the wealthy; and that it needed to be practical, teaching skills necessary for the beneficial development of the nation.
States generally responded by creating the required colleges of “agriculture and mechanic arts,” sometimes by establishing entirely new colleges and sometimes by expanding the mission of existing schools. The upshot, however, was the formation of agricultural colleges in every state in the union—then and now known as “Land-Grant” institutions.
The Morrill Act of 1862 has been supplemented and amended many times, but four specific changes were seminal. In 1887, through the Hatch Act, federal funding was added to expand agricultural research, driven by specific needs in each state. Then, in 1914, the Smith-Lever Act added the mission of “extension” and the funding to support it. Extension is the process of “extending” education informally to local communities, especially for improving the profitability and quality of life of rural families and businesses. This was the birth of the “county extension agent,” who provided advice and training to her or his neighbors. In 1890, a category of primarily African-American-serving universities was added to the program (19 exist today), and in 1994 a category of Native-American-serving universities was added (31 currently). Today, the Land-Grant system includes 106 universities.
The Land-Grant definition of agriculture quickly shifted to include more than just growing crops and livestock. Natural resource education, research and extension began with a focus on forestry, but then grew to include conservation and environmental science in general. The vast majority of foresters, wildlife and fisheries professionals, grazing specialists and water and soil conservationists are the products of Land-Grant institutions.
Read More