Overview
Agronomy has been a part of the Iowa scene since the prairie soils were first broken. In 1858 the Iowa General Assembly and Governor Lowe authorized the establishment of the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm. In 1862, President Lincoln signed the Morrill Act which established the Land-Grant College System. Iowa was the first state to accept the terms of the Morrill Act, making Iowa State University the first chartered Land-Grant Institution in the nation.
The first faculty at Iowa State included Norton S. Townshend, professor of practical agriculture, and Hugh H. Thompson, superintendent of the Model Farm. The first course of study included such subjects as the analysis of soils and practical agriculture in the third year and agricultural chemistry in the fourth year. Farmers' Institutes were conducted off-campus during the winter of 1870-71 by President Adonijah Welch and included "Preparation of Ground for Crops" and "Staple Crops." The 1871 report from the college included experiments with wheat, oats, winter oats, corn, barley, and grasses.
Thus, all the elements of present day agronomy functions-resident instruction, extension education, and research- were present by 1871. Some books used in agricultural chemistry at that time included How Crops Grow , How Crops Feed , and The Soil .
The Hatch Act, passed in 1887 and funded in 1889, established the Experiment Station and gave it the responsibility of disseminating the information learned from field trials. It also provided new funding that permitted the expansion of the agricultural faculty, and made necessary some organizational changes which eventually led to the creation of the Agronomy Department in 1902.
There were 64 students in Agronomy by 1905-06. The first recorded master's degrees in soils were awarded during the 1890s and more followed in farm crops and soils after the department was created. The first two Ph.D. degrees in Agronomy were conferred in 1917.
The first head of the Agronomy Department was Perry G. Holden, who initiated the "Seed Corn Gospel Trains" in 1904 as a means of further extending information from the campus. The Iowa Extension Act was passed in 1906, anticipating by a decade the Smith-Lever Act, establishing a national Cooperative Extension Service. Holden became the first director of the Iowa Extension Service and M. L. Mosher, his assistant on the "Seed Corn Gospel Trains," later became the first county agent and was located in Clinton County.
Following Holden, faculty member William H. Stevenson, in 1909 took up the task of formulating and building the department. Stevenson, who served as head until 1931, developed the Agronomy Farm on South State Street and initiated early soil surveys. He was also instrumental in separating Agricultural Engineering from Agronomy and into a new department. By the end of Stevenson's term, Agronomy had 29 faculty, and had become prominent on a national scale.
Because Stevenson was a soil scientist, a professor-in-charge of farm crops was appointed. Harold D. Hughes was the first person to hold this position, serving until 1947. Hughes was a forage specialist but he recognized the potential value of soybeans and crop improvement through selection and breeding. He was followed by Iver J. Johnson, a plant breeder, who helped lead plant breeding at Iowa State to prominence. Upon his departure in 1959, Agronomy was reorganized under a single department head.
Faculty member P. E. Brown became head of Agronomy in 1932, a time marked by the adversities of the Great Depression and drought. His tenure was cut short by his untimely death in 1937.
William H. Pierre served as head of the department from 1938 to 1964, a period encompassing World War II and the post-war educational boom. Pierre laid the groundwork for a much enlarged department and it was during his tenure that the original Agronomy Building was proposed and built. He managed to secure funding for the building, staffing for a new central field research station and a series of outlying experimental farms. By the early 1960s the reputation of the Agronomy Departrment and College of Agriculture at Iowa State University encircled the globe.
The Department of Agronomy has enjoyed a long and productive association with the United States Department of Agriculture, with one or more federal scientists as collaborative members of the faculty from the start. Much of the recognition enjoyed in germplasm development and plant breeding and in soil classification and soil and water conservation is due to their efforts. Likewise, Weather Bureau scientists from the United States Department of Commerce were helpful in establishing Agricultural Climatology as a research and graduate discipline.
The Agronomy Department was renamed the Department of Farm Crops and Soils in 1916, but in 1934 the original name was reinstituted. Agronomy activities were housed in the first Hall of Agriculture (now Botany Hall) until 1909 when the department was moved to the new Hall of Agriculture (now Curtiss Hall), with Farm Crops on the top floor and Soils on the ground floor.
The Agronomy Department is currently housed in a state-of-the art facility that features 146 research laboratories and teaching classrooms occupying 223,500 square feet. The facility is composed of a building originally constructed in the early 1950s, and an addition and remodeling project completed in 1986.
From 1938 to 1964, the ground work for the current building was laid by William H. Pierre, Head of Agronomy. It was during this period that the original Agronomy Building was proposed and built. Dr. Pierre managed to secure funding for the building, staffing a new central field research station and a series of outlying farms.
In 1952, 50 years after the department was established, Agronomy moved into the "new" Agronomy Building. From the outset, however, the building was too small to accomodate the rapidly growing department. Funding for the new building was appropriated during World War II, but by the time construction was started in 1949, it was sufficient to build only two-thirds of the space originally planned.
By 1964, the post-World War II "baby boom" generation was entering college and creating another growth spurt. John Pesek, Head of Agronomy, pressed for an addition to the Agronomy Building. In 1966, Dean of Agriculture Floyd Andre made the addition a top priority in the College of Agriculture's building program, but the project but was not sufficiently high on the university's building list until 1982.
In 1978, Owen Newlin, vice-president of Pioneer Hi-Bred International told then Associate Dean of Agriculture and Professor of Agronomy Louis Thompson that the Agronomy Building addition would never be approved without a show of "grass-roots" support from the people of Iowa. Newlin then challenged Thompson to join him in giving an initial $5000 gift to establish a planning fund for the addition. Thompson matched his gift, asked Newlin to chair a committee to raise funds, and agreed to serve as secretary-treasurer of the committee. The committee became known as "Friends of Agronomy."
Dean of Agriculture Lee Kolmer launched an informational program through the and Extension Service to acquaint leaders in all 12 Extension Areas of the state with the need for the Agronomy Building Addition. By this time, the Agronomy faculty members were scattered in a dozen locations on campus.
The response to the fund drive was so successful that President Robert Parks authorized planning of the addition in 1979. By 1982, $600,000 had been contributed and pledged by more than 1,500 individuals, businesses, industries, and organizations. The university administration gave the Agronomy Building Addition first priority and the State Board of Regents agreed to support a request to the Iowa General Assembly.
Governor Terry Branstad was impressed by the public support demonstrated for the project, and the fact that enough planning had been done to break ground in six months. He also knew that with the state of Iowa mired in a recession, there was a need to provide jobs, so he included the project in his 1983 budget. The Iowa Legislature General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a $30.5 million bond issue of which $26.7 million was for the project.
Construction was begun in the fall of 1983 and the addition was occupied in the fall of 1986. The original Agronomy Building was then remodeled to blend functionally and aesthetically with the new addition. It was occupied in the spring of 1988, marking the completion of the Agronomy Hall project.
Artist Beverly Pepper designed and constructed this 14 foot metal sculpture named "Janus Agri Altar." Pepper studied the horseshoe-shaped courtyard where her work was to be installed, and decided the setting suggested a perfect location for an "altar." Janus was the Roman god of agriculture, and the tool-shaped sculpture symbolizes the steel plow that broke the sod of the plains. The sculpture was installed in 1986.
As part of the artwork included in Agronomy Hall you will also find two 12.5 by 7.5 foot murals done in 1986 by internationally reknown artist Richard Hass. The murals depict Iowa landscapes and illustrate the trompe l'oeil (illusionary) technique
.