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Davis: Historical Overview
The Need for a University Farm
The establishment of a university farm was
the culmination of a groundswell of support in the latter half of
the 19th century. Need was seen for research into farming practices
for California's specific conditions, especially as the role of
agriculture in the state's economy continued to increase. Farmers'
organizations, including the nation-wide Patrons of Husbandry, more
commonly known as the Grange, and the California Creamery Operators
Association, lobbied for an agricultural education based on practical,
hands-on instruction and actual farm experience. Dispute over the
facilities and emphasis of Berkeley's College of Agriculture also
played a role, as critics on both sides argued that the program
was either too theoretical or too practical. In 1868, Ezra S. Carr,
the first professor of the College of Agriculture at the Berkeley
campus, called for a legislative investigation into the lack of
hands-on training facilities there. Eugene W. Hilgard, Carr's successor,
instead called for an education based more on scientific investigation
than on hands-on experience, what he called "drill in handicraft."
Two individuals became influential in this growing
debate. One was William H. Saylor, a member of the California State
Agricultural Society, later chemist and associate secretary of the
State Dairy Bureau. Saylor was also a journalist for the Dairy
and Produce Review, and took up the cause of improving instruction
at Berkeley's College of Agriculture. The other was Peter J. Shields,
secretary of the State Agricultural Society, who later became a
superior court judge in Sacramento.
Shields took an interest in the issue when he
discovered that young men had to go to school in other states to
learn to judge dairy products. Shields later described his impression
of the agricultural education available at the time: "There was
a College of Agriculture at Berkeley in connection with the University
of California, but it was purely academic. It was largely confined
to the study of botany and chemistry; it had no farm and little
prestige; it was apt to be thought of as a snap curriculum, attracting
students who wanted to go to college but wanted to avoid its more
difficult work." Shields began work to set up a more practical establishment
for training young men and women interested in agriculture. Raised
on a dairy farm in the Sacramento area, he felt such a school should
combine the scientific "whys" and the technical "hows" of agriculture.
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Legislative Action
Shields' idea first came before the legislature
in 1901 in a bill he drafted, but which was not passed that year.
He continued gathering support for the idea of such a school, corresponded
widely with heads of successful colleges and schools in other states,
and, as the 1903 session of the legislature began, he again prepared
a bill for introduction, one of several agricultural bills introduced
at that time. The bill was passed by the legislature but vetoed
by Governor George Pardee, who explained that in refusing to sign
the measure he was not indicating hostility to the idea, but that
the bill did not provide enough to fill the needs.
Creamery and livestock interests in this state
also became active in the movement about this time and for the next
two years, agitation for the passage of the bill continued. By the
time the 1905 session of the legislature was ready to open, Shields
had prepared another bill. In this he was assisted by Professor
E. W. Major of the University, who was to become the first farm
superintendent. When the bill finally was presented, Yolo county
representatives who had been active in the matter added an amendment
describing the kind of farm to be purchased and provisions relating
to water and water rights. This rider written on a purple scrap
of paper and pinned to the original draft provided that in soil,
location, climate, and environment the place selected be typical
of the best agricultural conditions in California. The object of
the rider was to make the bill fit Yolo county rather than Berkeley
and to add to the county's chances in securing the farm.
Senator Marshal Diggs of Yolo county and Assemblyman
W. A. Johnstone of Los Angeles sponsored the bill. It was passed
and immediately signed by Governor Pardee in 1905. More than 50
sites were considered for the farm, from Glenn county in the north
to Fresno in the south. The Yolo county site was finally chosen,
largely through the efforts of George W. Pierce, because it was
in the center of California's great rural agricultural industry
and most available for building up an educational institution so
that all in this industry could have the easiest access to it. The
soil and climate met the provisions of the legislative act and Yolo
county represented the inter-relations of two great systems of California
farming--rainfall and irrigation.
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UC Davis Is Established
The farm was purchased in 1906 for $104,250.
The land consisted of 778 acres of what was once the Jerome C. Davis
farm, which in 1858 had won a first-class rating from the California
State Agricultural Society.
The first structure, built in 1907, was a residence
for the farm manager. Over time, it housed the home economics department,
the Faculty Club, the Departments of Economics, Geography, and Sociology,
and the chancellor's office. According to campus lore, two fig trees,
north of Sproul Hall, date back to the Davis plantings.
In 1909, the farm was described in this manner:
"50 acres planted or to be planted to trees or vines, 50 acres for
cereal investigation, 30 acres for investigating various methods
of applying water, 80 acres in alfalfa and livestock, and 20 more
under preparation. Various small tracts, buildings all of shingled
construction, consisted of a dairy building, a livestock judging
pavilion, a dairy barn, a seed house, a shop, a water tower. Under
construction were a dining hall, a horticulture building, and veterinary
clinic."
A leaflet about the University Farm of that period
said, "The School of Agriculture is for young men who can spend
more time in studying the principles and practices of agriculture.
The full course is for three years and is granted to those who are
15 years of age and have completed the grammar grades of the common
schools. Instruction is given in all lines of agriculture including
farm practice, livestock judging, botany and plant propagation,
horticulture, viticulture, dairying, breeds and feeding livestock,
soil fertility, farm props, farm mechanics, irrigation, land surveying,
mathematics, and English. The course does not fit [one] for college,
it aims at the most practical needs of the young man who will operate
his own farm. The school year continues from about September 20
to May 6 or nearly 8 months."
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The First Students and Administrators
The school opened in October, 1908, for non-degree
students, and in January, 1909, the first degree students came from
Berkeley for a semester. About 40 young men were in attendance.
One-half of them have had some high school training; ages ranged
from 15 to 24, with the average at 18.
Arthur M. Cleghorn was appointed principal of
the School of Agriculture; and E. M. Major, manager of the farm.
In 1910, Leroy Anderson was named superintendent of the University
Farm School and in 1913, Huber E. Van Norman was appointed dean.
Dean Claude B. Hutchison followed in 1922. Walter Howard was director
of the college from 1925 until 1937, when Assistant Dean Knowles
Ryerson, who had been a student at Davis in 1916 and later an official
of U. S. Department of Agriculture, went into office. In 1952, Ryerson
moved to Berkeley as dean of the College of Agriculture there and
Stanley B. Freeborn moved from the dean's office in Berkeley to
the Davis campus as its first provost. He was named chancellor in
1958 and retired in 1959. He was succeeded by Emil M. Mrak.
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The Campus Grows
The campus itself grew rapidly in the first
decades with additional buildings and additional land. A campus
building plan was adopted in 1925. By 1930, the campus had grown
to 1,000 acres and by 1951, it had become 3,000 acres. By the 1960s,
about 700 additional acres were added to the campus. All of the
early buildings on the campus were wood, mostly shingled. In 1922,
the first permanent buildings were erected--dairy industry and horticulture.
These buildings were still extant in 1968.
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Academic Developments
In the academic developments on the Davis
campus, the non-degree work in agriculture continued to grow. In
1922, four-year degree work was initiated and the Farm School course
was renamed the non-degree curriculum. Until then, students had
to take most of their work for a degree in Berkeley. In 1936, the
home economics curriculum was opened. The campus was taken over
by the Army Signal Corps from 1943 to 1945. In 1949, the School
of Veterinary Medicine was opened. The College of Letters and Science
enrolled its first students in 1951. The two-year non-degree curriculum
continued until June, 1960.
In 1959, the Regents declared that Davis was to
be a general campus of the University and in 1962, the College of
Engineering was established--built on the well-developed agricultural
engineering department that had long existed on the campus. Davis'
own Graduate Division was established in 1961. In 1964, the School
of Law was established, with the first students to be admitted for
the fall of 1966. In 1965, the School of Medicine was authorized
and a dean appointed, with the first students to be admitted in
September, 1968. Although there were many women students attending
Davis in the 1960s, this was not always so. The first women to brave
the all-male stronghold came from Berkeley in 1914. These three
women, all students of the College of Agriculture in Berkeley and
all city born and reared, felt that they should come Davis for a
term to get an insight into practical farming to round out their
agricultural education.
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UC Davis in the 1960s
The campus began as an agriculture school
and continued to be the principal agricultural campus of the University.
Most of its 3,700 acres were devoted to agricultural research, and
agriculture played a dominant role on the campus. Due to development
of the biological sciences in agriculture, Davis had a far higher
percentage of biologists than was normally found on a campus of
its size and many of the science departments in the College of Letters
and Science had their beginnings in the College of Agriculture.
Adding to Davis' strength in the sciences, several
unique research features were developed, such as the Agricultural
Toxicology and Residue Research Laboratory, Food Protection and
Toxicology Center, the National Center for Primate Biology, Radiobiology
Laboratory, Computer Center, and Ecology Center. A School of Medicine
was planned it and was decided that it would be closely related
to the growing and expanding School of Veterinary Medicine. Many
research projects and basic facilities were to be shared by the
two schools.
In planning for its future, the campus in the
1960s continued to develop in the sciences and at the same time
build breadth and depth in the social sciences, humanities, and
arts.
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