The Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station (AAES) was established in 1888 under the Hatch Act of 1887, which provided federal funding to assist in the operation of state-based agricultural experiment stations by land grant universities. The University of Arkansas was founded as a land grant university in 1871 under the Morrill Land Grant College Act of 1862.
The nation's Land Grant University System has three missions: teaching, research and extension. They are intertwined in practice and in their impact. Thus, many AAES scientists, whose primary mission is research, also have Cooperative Extension Service (CES) responsibilities and are teaching faculty on university campuses. The AAES and CES are sister units of the University of Arkansas System's statewide Division of Agriculture.
The AAES was expanded with the opening of the first three Branch Experiment Stations at Stuttgart, Hope and Marianna in 1927, and more have been added over the years. The Division of Agriculture was founded in 1959 as a separate unit of the U of A System, and responsibility for AAES research and CES extension programs was transferred from the Fayetteville campus to the "statewide campus" of the Division of Agriculture. Starting in the 1970s, several Branch Stations became regional Research and Extension Centers.
Stations scientists conduct research to develop knowledge that can be used to solve problems. Research topics include crop and animal production, food processing, resource conservation and environmental protection, forestry, community development, child care, family life and many others.
University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture
Cooperative Extension Service
2301 S. University Avenue
Little Rock, AR 72204
Phone: (501) 671-2000
Arkansas Station. Fertilizer experiments with wheat and Sprayed apples, 1900
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
