Records of Colorado Cooperative Extension

Colorado Cooperative Extension (formerly known as the Colorado Cooperative Extension Service and now known as Colorado Extension) has existed for nearly a century as the agricultural outreach arm of Colorado State University. The organization has its roots in early farmers' institutes conducted off-campus starting in 1879. These events served to bring research results from the university to rural farmers and homemakers in an effort to improve their quality of life. They also fulfilled one third of the tripartite land-grant mission of research, teaching, and outreach. These institutes evolved into the placement of agricultural specialists in various counties throughout the state, which is reflected in the earliest annual reports in this collection.

During the first decade of the twentieth century, land-grant colleges throughout the country experimented with ways to assist the nation's farmers in developing more efficient methods of production. The U.S. Congress appropriated funds in 1912 for county agent work, and in cooperation with the federal Bureau of Plant Industry, the Colorado Agricultural College assigned a faculty member from the agronomy department to supervise county agents in Colorado. Logan, El Paso, and Conejos were among the first Colorado counties to begin farm demonstration programs in the autumn of 1912, and these early county agencies were incorporated into the Cooperative Extension Service when it was created two years later.

The passage of the Smith-Lever Act in 1914 officially established Extension as a cooperative effort between the USDA, land-grant institutions, and state and local governments. Each state would set up its own operation with the USDA through its land-grant university. On July 30, 1914, Colorado State University president Charles Lory signed a Memorandum of Understanding with US Secretary of Agriculture David Houston to begin Colorado's Extension Service. The new organization, under the direction of President Lory (1914-1915) and later, Hiram T. French (1915-1920), would bring the latest research in horticulture, animal husbandry, home management, and nutrition to adults and children throughout the state, resulting in the Progressive-era ideal of a vocationally-educated populace with a quality of life improved through science.

Shortly after the Cooperative Extension Service was created, World War I broke out in Europe, which would sidetrack Extension's immediate goal of an improved rural life. By 1917, when the U.S. joined the war, Extension had begun to fill the role of community organizer and brought together resources to help citizens "fight" on the home front. "Food will win the war" became a popular slogan, and American farmers were encouraged to drastically increase their output to feed the troops. Essentially, Extension agents worked to bring the war to the local level, a fact that is reflected in many of the earliest annual reports. After the war ended, Extension agents continued to expand their work in peace time, under the direction of Roud McCann (1921-1929).

In the following years, however, the increased output encouraged during WWI would have a negative effect on the American farmer. During the Great Depression, a combination of factors, including overproduction, endangered the American agricultural system. Once again, Extension sought to bring relief to the local level by implementing New Deal strategies and policies, as well as offering revised farming techniques to cope with environmental devastation in Colorado's Great Plains region. Extension agents encouraged the planting of trees as windbreaks, contour farming to prevent erosion, cooperative marketing, and adherence to New Deal programs and incentives. Director F.A. Anderson helmed the organization through these difficult times (1929-1952).

When the U.S. joined World War II in 1941, Extension was once again called to the fore to galvanize the populace on the home front. Agents organized victory gardens, emergency farm labor assignments for farms whose workers had gone off to war, scrap metal and scrap rubber collection, and the formation of county war boards. Home demonstration agents taught women to bake without sugar and to make meals within the constraints of their war rations. 4-H members rotated to different farms in their counties, picking sugar beets, potatoes, melons, and other crops to help bring in the harvest on farms that lacked labor. Extension was instrumental in organizing the war response at the county level.

After WWII ended in 1945, Extension's focus turned back to its original goal of bringing the benefit of university research to rural populations. However, the character of those populations was beginning to shift from a widely agrarian base to more urban in nature. Under James E. Morrison (1952-1958) and the long directorship of Lowell H. Watts (1958-Oct. 1968, Oct. 1969-1982), programs aimed at urban and suburban living were added to Extension's repertoire. This included revised marketing of 4-H programs to children living in cities, complete with new courses to appeal to their needs and interests such as car repair, dog training, and theater.

Since 1982, there have been five Extension directors: John Patrick Jordan (Acting, 1983), Don K. Chadwick (1983-1986), Kenneth R. Bolen (1986-1990), Milan A. Rewerts (1990-2007), and Deborah J. Young (2007- ). Extension continues to evolve to address the changing needs of a shifting populace and a dramatic decline in the number of family farms.