History of The Alabama Cooperative Extension System

History Of The Alabama Cooperative Extension System

A common perception is that the birth of Cooperative Extension followed passage of the Smith-Lever Act of 1914, which provided federal funds to land-grant universities to support Extension work. In a formal sense, this is true. Even so, the roots of Cooperative Extension extend as far back as the late 18th century, following the American Revolution, when affluent farmers first began organizing groups to sponsor educational meetings to disseminate useful farming information. In some cases, these lectures even were delivered by university professors — a practice that foreshadowed Cooperative Extension work more than a century later.

These efforts became more formalized over time. By the 1850s, for example, many schools and colleges had begun holding farmer institutes — public meetings where lecturers discussed new farming insights.

Read more about History Of The Alabama Cooperative Extension System:  The Morrill Land-Grant College Act of 1862, The Second Morrill Act of 1890, The Huntsville Normal School (later Alabama A&M University), Limitations of The Morrill Act, The Hatch Experiment Station Act of 1887, Seaman Knapp, Tuskegee Institute, Jesup Wagons, The Beginning of Formal Cooperative Extension Work in Alabama, Corn and Tomato Clubs, Passage of The Smith-Lever Act of 1914, Farm Demonstration, Woman’s Work, Junior Extension, Specialist Work, Movable Schools, Mass Media, An Emerging Pattern of Alabama Extension Work, Tuskegee's Role Under The Smith-Lever Act, Historical Panorama of Alabama Agriculture

Famous quotes containing the words history of the, history, alabama, cooperative, extension and/or system:

    Three million of such stones would be needed before the work was done. Three million stones of an average weight of 5,000 pounds, every stone cut precisely to fit into its destined place in the great pyramid. From the quarries they pulled the stones across the desert to the banks of the Nile. Never in the history of the world had so great a task been performed. Their faith gave them strength, and their joy gave them song.
    William Faulkner (1897–1962)

    When we of the so-called better classes are scared as men were never scared in history at material ugliness and hardship; when we put off marriage until our house can be artistic, and quake at the thought of having a child without a bank-account and doomed to manual labor, it is time for thinking men to protest against so unmanly and irreligious a state of opinion.
    William James (1842–1910)

    While over Alabama earth
    These words are gently spoken:
    Serve—and hate will die unborn.
    Love—and chains are broken.
    Langston Hughes (20th century)

    Then we grow up to be Daddy. Domesticated men with undomesticated, frontier dreams. Suddenly life—or is it the children?—is not as cooperative as it ought to be. It’s tough to be in command of anything when a baby is crying or a ten-year-old is in despair. It’s tough to feel a sense of control when you’ve got to stop six times during the half-hour ride to Grandma’s.
    Hugh O’Neill (20th century)

    Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man’s nature—opposition to it, is [in?] his love of justice.... Repeal the Missouri compromise—repeal all compromises—repeal the declaration of independence—repeal all past history, you still can not repeal human nature. It still will be the abundance of man’s heart, that slavery extension is wrong; and out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth will continue to speak.
    Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)

    The individual protests against the world, but he doesn’t get beyond protest, he is just a single protester. When he wants to be more than that, he has to counter power with power, he has to oppose the system with another system.
    Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)