Table of Contents
Virginia Cooperative Extension enables people to improve their lives
through an educational process that uses scientific knowledge focused on
issues and needs (Revised July 1994).
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Building on the strength of our agriculture, natural resource, family and
community heritage, we enable people to shape their futures through
research based educational programs. Recognizing that knowledge is power,
we serve people where they live and work. Audiences are involved in
designing, implementing and evaluating needs-driven programs. We are a
dynamic organization which stimulates positive personal and societal
change leading to more productive lives, families, farms, and forests, as
well as a better environment in urban and rural communities.
Our vision is:
- To help clientele improve their lives.
- To use a systems approach to programming, with task-oriented work teams
that respond to the needs of individuals, groups and organizations.
- To provide residents prompt access to information and programs through
an innovative human and technological system.
- To work with the disenfranchised and underserved who need special
attention by targeting certain of our resources to programs for low-income
groups, those outside the dominant culture, dysfunctional families,
limited-resource farmers, at-risk youth and others.
- To fully integrate a culturally diverse paid and volunteer staff in
planning, implementing and evaluating programs.
- To collaborate with public and private partners to better utilize our
resources, heighten our impact and reach a more diverse audience.
- To capitalize on the respective strengths of Virginia State and
Virginia Tech as partners in supporting the extension mission.
- To recruit, manage and reward faculty, support, and volunteer staff to
reflect each person's uniqueness and value.
- To have an open and positive administrative environment, based on
shared leadership that maintains organizational integrity while providing
opportunities for all staff members to fully realize their potential.
- To minimize administrative costs and direct our resources to
educational programming.
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In 1903, Seaman A. Knapp, special agent in the United States Department of
Agriculture, was invited to Terrell, Texas, to discuss with businessmen the
serious condition of agriculture and business caused by the spread of the
cotton boll weevil over Texas.
On February 29, 1903, with the cooperation of the businessmen of Terrell,
Dr. Knapp established in Kaufman County the first privately owned
demonstration farm. It was managed by Walter C. Porter, son of the
owner.
This demonstration was supervised by Dr. Knapp. The businessmen of Terrell
guaranteed the owner against any loss as a result of carrying out
recommended practices. At the end of the year, Mr. Porter reported that he
had cleared $700 more than he could have expected under the ordinary
methods of farming.
As a result of this success, Farmers Cooperative Demonstration Work was
organized in the Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture,
January 15, 1904. Funds for this new department were furnished from an
appropriation made by the Congress to combat the boll weevil.
Since this was the beginning of demonstration work, the following statement
by Dr. Knapp in his first report on the Porter demonstration is interesting
and just as true today as in 1904: "The object of all such demonstrations
is to test or prove some important fact bearing upon agricultural
conditions. If these demonstrations are conducted in such a way that few
persons see the result, or learn about them, little is accomplished."
The idea of demonstration work spread readily. Men were employed to travel
along the railroads, establishing demonstrations on farms near the towns
where there was sufficient local interest. In 1904, 33 special agents were
employed by Dr. Knapp to establish demonstration farms. These agents
worked two to six months in the early part of the year and were paid from
$60 to $80 per month plus traveling expenses.
In 1906, the businessmen of Terrell, Texas, appealed to Dr. Knapp for a man
to give his entire time to their county. They offered to pay a part of his
salary. As a result, the first agent to work exclusively in one county was
appointed November 12, 1906. This first county agriculture agent was W. C.
Stallin.
In 1906, Dr. J. D. Eggleston, then State Superintendent of Public
Instruction, on learning about the work of Dr. Knapp invited him to
Virginia. While in the state, Dr. Knapp got T. O. Sandy of Burkeville,
Virginia, to be a demonstrator. The demonstrations conducted by Mr. Sandy
under Dr. Knapp's direction were so satisfactory that in 1907 Dr. Knapp
made him state agent and gave him authority to appoint eight or ten
additional agents to help with the work. Mr. Sandy set to work immediately
and soon surrounded himself with a group of practical and devoted men.
From the beginning, those in charge of farm demonstration work realized
that in the southern states improvement of living standards among the African-American
farmers was just as important as among whites, and that the best way to do
this work with the African-Americans was through African-American agents. The first such agent
to be appointed in this state was J. B. Pierce in 1906 of Hampton
Institute, who worked in Gloucester County.
The first of these assistants was F. S. Farrar of Amelia County, who began
work October 1, 1907. Early in 1909, he organized about 100 boys in
Dinwiddie and Chesterfield Counties into "corn clubs." These boys soon
averaged 65 bushels of corn per acre on farms which had produced only 17
bushels/acre.
Demonstration was a new thing in education. Here and there, school
superintendents and others began to show interest. W. C. Shackelford was
appointed demonstration agent with headquarters at Charlottesville and J.
H. Quinsenberry with headquarters at Louisa. Within the next year or two
followed the appointments of W. P. Moore in Bedford and J. C. Bruce in
Culpeper.
Girls' club work in Virginia started in Nottoway and Halifax Counties in
1910 under the direction of Miss Ella G. Agnew of Nottoway County. This
work was first known as "girls' canning club work." It gave the farm girls
in their homes the same type of instruction that was being given to farm
boys on their farms. Within a few years, girls' canning club work had
gained so much favorable recognition that the agents directing it became
known as home demonstration agents.
After the passage of the Smith Lever Act, the headquarters for work in
Virginia was moved from Burkeville to Virginia Polytechnic Institute,
Blacksburg, Virginia, and this type of education became known as
Cooperative Extension Work in Agriculture and Home Economics. The first
acting director of this work was Dr. J. D. Eggleston, then President of
V.P.I.
For more information about Extension work in Virginia, refer to College of
the Fields - Highlights of the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service,
1914-1980. Copies of College of the Fields are available from the
Extension Distribution Center.
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Enabling Act - The Enabling Act establishing the Department of Agriculture
says in part: "There shall be at the seat of government a Department of
Agriculture, the general design and duties of which shall be to acquire and
to diffuse among the people of the United States useful information on
subjects connected with Agriculture in the most general and comprehensive
sense of the word."
Morrill Act - The Morrill Act of 1862 provided for the donation of lands
for colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts. The purpose was: "To the
endowment, support and maintenance of at least one college, in each state,
where the leading object shall be to teach such branches of learning as are
related to agriculture and mechanic arts." This act specified how the land
should be donated, the apportionment among states, how money derived from
the sale of lands should be invested, and the details of accounting and
reporting to the United States. Under this act, the Virginia Polytechnic
Institute was established in 1872 as Virginia's land-grant college.
Second Morrill Act of 1890 and Nelson Amendment of 1907 - These acts
increased the endowment of the land-grant colleges, including funding for
traditionally Black colleges with land-grant mission.
Hatch Act - The Hatch Act of 1887 provided for the establishment of
experiment stations at the land-grant colleges.
Smith Lever Act - The Smith Lever Act was the basic legislation which
authorized Cooperative Extension work between the land-grant colleges and
the United States Department of Agriculture. There were numerous
supplemental acts which followed the passing of the original act and
includes: Cappers-Ketcham Acts, May 1928; Bankhead-Jones Act, July 1935;
Bankhead-Flannagan Act, June 1945; and a consolidated act approved in June
1953. The current amended Smith Lever Act was passed in October 1962.
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Appropriations Act of 1914 - In 1914, the General Assembly of Virginia
enacted laws providing for Extension work in cooperation with the USDA, as
provided by the Smith Lever Act. It is known as Appropriation Act of 1914
(Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia, 1914, Chapter 353, page 710).
Required funds were appropriated to offset the federal funds and county
boards of supervisors were authorized to appropriate for salaries and other
costs of County Extension Agents. Few amendments were made in the original
act until the passing of the 1966 act by the Virginia General Assembly
establishing the V.P.I. Extension Division. Extension Division Act of 1966 -
Approved April 1, 1966.
In 1995 the Virginia Cooperative Extension and Agricultural Experiment Station
Division was established. The Code of Virginia also recognized the "Cooperative
Extension Service." Code 23-132.1: ..."The Cooperative Extension Service
Program shall be operated cooperatively by Virginia Polytechnic Institute and
State University and Virginia State University..."
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