The New York State Agricultural Experiment Station (NYSAES) was established by an act of the New York State Legislature on June 26, 1880, “for the purpose of promoting agriculture in its various branches by scientific investigation and experiment.” At that time, agriculture was one of the biggest industries in the state, employing over half of the labor force. The first director, E. Lewis Sturtevant, set a course that has lasted over 100 years: scientific discovery and rapid communication of results to benefit the farmers and consumers of New York.
Originally an independent state institution, the Station became part of Cornell University in 1923 and immediately diversified to include research on crops for canned goods, nursery plants, and raspberries. When all animal research was transferred to Cornell’s Ithaca campus at the end of World War II, the NYSAES became a true horticultural research institute. To support this mission, by the late 1940s new departments for chemistry, insects, food science, plant diseases, seed testing, and vegetable production were added.
The campus has grown from its original single building and barns to a complex that today includes over 700 acres of land planted to test plots, orchards, and vineyards. It is home to faculty from the Departments of Entomology and Food Science and the School of Integrative Plant Science. Researchers—including over 300 faculty, staff, and students— work to safeguard New York’s production of fruits and vegetables, develop new crops, enhance food safety for consumers, and promote economically viable farming solutions.
The Core Historical Literature of Agriculture (CHLA) is a core electronic collection of agricultural texts published between the early nineteenth century and the middle to late twentieth century. Full-text materials cover agricultural economics, agricultural engineering, animal science, crops and their protection, food science,forestry, human nutrition, rural sociology, and soil science. Scholars have selected the titles in this collection for their historical importance. Their evaluations and 4,500 core titles are detailed in the seven volume series The Literature of the Agricultural Sciences, Wallace C. Olsen, series editor.
The titles listed below can be found online at the CORE link (see box above)
Bulletin Cornell University. Agricultural Experiment Station. Ithaca, N.Y. (1888 - 1970)
Bulletin New York State Agricultural Experiment Station. Geneva, N.Y (1885 - 1970)
Cornell extension bulletin Cornell University. Cooperative Extension; New York State College of Agriculture; New York State College of Human Ecology; New York State College of Home Economics. Ithaca, N.Y (1916 - 1981)
Extension Service news New York State College of Agriculture. Ithaca, N.Y. : New York State College of Agriculture, Cornell University, (1918 - 1931)
Memoir Cornell University. Agricultural Experiment Station. Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University, Agricultural Experiment Station (1913 - 1970)
Technical bulletin New York State Agricultural Experiment Station. Geneva, N.Y. : The Station, (1906 - 1949)
Station Buildings at 1882
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
The new Home Economics Building at Cornell University and the Agriculture Experiment Station, 1913. Image courtesy of Wkimedia Commons.
