Agricultural Experiment & UI Extension Publications

Primary sources for practical, research-based information on Idaho Agriculture, Forestry, Gardening, and Family and Consumer Sciences

Contents: About the Agricultural Experiment and University of Idaho Extension | About the Collection | Additional Resources | Tech

About the Agricultural Experiment and University of Idaho Extension

Since the beginning, one of the primary responsibilities of the Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station and the University of Idaho Extension has been the diffusion of useful and practical, research-based information on agriculture and related subjects.

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Organization and progress of work at the experimental stations

The University of Idaho Board of Regents established the Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of Idaho in 1892 following the passage of the federal Hatch Act (1887), which allowed the creation of agricultural experiment stations at state land-grant colleges. In addition to stimulating agricultural research, the act required the publishing of bulletins or reports of progress on station research and allocated $15,000 per year for conducting investigations and experiments and printing and distributing the results.

The University of Idaho College of Agriculture began establishing an Extension program in southern Idaho in 1910. In 1914, the federal Smith-Lever Act authorized cooperative extension work in agriculture and home economics between the state land-grant institutions and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Extension’s role was to diffuse practical research-based information to people not attending college through instruction and practical demonstrations. Over the years, the Extension’s mandate grew to include gardening, natural resources, youth development, and community development.

About the Collection

This collection encompasses the research-based publishing of the Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station and University of Idaho Extension since their inceptions. Experiment station publishing started almost immediately in 1892 with a series of bulletins that ran until 1954. Extension publishing began in 1912 with a series of bulletins that ran until 1953. A new series of University of Idaho College of Agriculture bulletins began in 1953, starting with number 200, with contributions coming either from the Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station or the Idaho Agricultural Extension Service. A series of shorter College of Agriculture publications, the current information series, began in 1964 with titles from both the experiment station and extension. A series of highly technical research bulletins published by the Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station, the research bulletins, began in 1922.

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Idaho potato culture clubs

Starting the mid-1990s, experiment station and Extension publications were published on the Internet in PDF format as well as in print. By 2010, the vast majority of Extension and experiment station publications were available only online, for free access by all.

-Written by Diane Noel, May 2011

Additional Resources

Idaho Resources

University of Idaho Extension Home

University of Idaho Extension Catalog

University of Idaho College of Agricultural and Life Sciences

Idaho State Department of Agriculture

Related Resources

The National Agricultural Library Collections

Washington State University Extension publications

Oregon State University Extension publications

Oregon State University Extension Service: 100 Years of Putting Knowledge to Work

Oregon Small Farms, hosted by Oregon State University Extension Service

Technical Credits - CollectionBuilder

This digital collection is built with CollectionBuilder, an open source framework for creating digital collection and exhibit websites that is developed by faculty librarians at the University of Idaho Library following the Lib-Static methodology.

Using the CollectionBuilder-CSV template and the static website generator Jekyll, this project creates an engaging interface to explore driven by metadata.

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Technical Specifications
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