In 1887 Congress passed the Hatch Act, which provided for necessary basic and applied agricultural research to be conducted by the state colleges of agriculture in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Agricultural experiment stations were established in 16 states between 1875 and 1885, and they now exist in all 50 states. These stations, together with USDA research centres around the country, comprise a network of coordinated research installations in the agricultural sciences. Slightly more than half of the agricultural research in the United States, however, is conducted by the private sector.
Congress passed the Smith-Lever Act in 1914, providing for, among other things, the teaching of improved agricultural practices to farmers. Thus the agricultural extension service--now recognized as an outstanding example of adult vocational education--was established.
The demand for instruction in agriculture at the secondary level gained momentum around the beginning of the 20th century. Some private agricultural schools had already been founded in the East, and by 1916 agriculture was being taught in more than 3,000 high schools. Federally aided programs of vocational agriculture education began with the passage of the Smith-Hughes Vocational Education Act in 1917. By the second half of the 20th century, an average of 750,000 high-school, young farmer, and adult farmer students were enrolled annually in classes offered by about 10,000 vocational agriculture departments in the United States. Since passage of the Vocational Education Act of 1963, further expansion of agricultural education has occurred in vocational schools and in courses offered at junior and senior colleges.
