Agricultural Hall: Genesis for a thriving college

“Discoveries by faculty and staff in those disciplines with ties to Ag Hall have influenced Wisconsin agricultural practice, and the organization of Wisconsin communities and businesses,” says CALS Dean Elton Aberle. “In many ways, they have reshaped biology and the life sciences, and their applications in society.”

Among the countless accomplishments are these discoveries: vitamin A in 1913, fortifying food with vitamin D to prevent rickets, coumarin (which, in time, was developed into Warfarin, a rat poison also widely used as a blood thinner for heart patients), a hardy variety of alfalfa (welcomed by the Wisconsin dairy industry), and the complete genetic sequence of harmless bacterium E. coli (which led to better understanding of the deadly strain).

Construction of Ag Hall started in 1902, and it was occupied in November 1903. Before then, the college of agriculture resided in Smith, King and what is now called South Hall. Today, the thriving college that grew out of those early days offers 25 majors, classes taught by some of the world’s leading scientists, a faculty-student ratio that allows for ongoing advising, and a student body that includes people from all over the world.

To mark the building’s centennial, CALS will host a celebration in early December. In the meantime, here’s just a sampling of the departments that likely can trace their early roots to Agricultural Hall.

Bacteriology
UW may be home to the country’s first bacteriology course, which dates back to the early 1880s. Bacteriologists moved to Ag Hall from South Hall in 1903, and the agricultural bacteriology department was formed in 1914. In the mid-1950s, the department moved from Ag Hall to Fred Hall. Today, the department’s basic research supports the university’s entire microbiological community.

Plant pathology
Plant pathology was established in 1909 within the college of agriculture. Today, its faculty continue to respond to agriculture’s changing needs. Research ranges from developing resistance to Dutch elm disease to “fast plants” used for biology instruction in classrooms worldwide. The department was the first to demonstrate that genes controlling disease resistance in whole plants are also expressed in plant tissue cultures.

Agricultural chemistry
This department held classes in Ag Hall in the early 1900s — and was among many that quickly needed more space. It moved into its own building in 1912. Renamed biochemistry in 1938, the department’s research studies the chemical basis of life and illuminates how a molecular understanding of basic biological problems can improve the human condition.

Poultry science
Biochemists worked closely with poultry scientists in the early days of Ag Hall, an association that led to many discoveries about vitamins and minerals. Poultry husbandry was housed in Ag Hall from the department’s birth in 1909 to at least 1912. Renamed poultry science in 1962, the department became part of Animal Sciences in 1996, the same year UW–Madison became the Midwest Poultry Science Undergraduate Center of Excellence. Today the department is known for playing a critical role in the mapping of the avian genome and being the first to generate avian stem cells.

Agronomy
Established in 1903, agronomy was housed in Ag Hall before acquiring its own building in 1907. Today, Agronomy faculty study plant breeding and genetics, plant physiology and molecular biology, and crop management and protection.

Agricultural journalism
Ag Hall likely housed agricultural journalism beginning in the early 1900s, remaining there for decades until moving to the old agronomy building in 1972. Renamed Life Sciences Communication, today the department carries out basic and applied studies to better understand how people perceive, process and use science information. The department also develops and tests strategies for disseminating research-based information to specialized audiences.

Genetics
Genetics started in 1910 as experimental breeding and was located in Ag Hall until 1920. Renamed genetics in 1918, it was the first such department in the United States. Today, the Laboratory of Genetics administers a doctoral training program that draws on researchers from other campus departments. Research fields within the department include arabidopsis, C. elegans, drosophila, gene expression, genomics, human and mammalian, microbial, molecular, mouse, neurogenetics, plant, population and evolution, yeast and fungi, and zebrafish.

Veterinary science
First part of animal husbandry, veterinary science was established as a separate department in 1911, and was housed in Ag Hall until 1924. The unit became the Department of Animal Health and Biomedical Sciences in 1992, and transferred from CALS to the School of Veterinary Medicine in 1998.

Agricultural economics
Started in 1909, this was the first such department in the nation. Farm management, marketing and land economics were early areas of concentration. Now called the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, department faculty are regularly called upon to assist with major public policy decisions, such as the 1996 Farm Bill. Through the UW-Extension service, faculty work on areas including school finance reform, the impact of trade agreements on local economies, and milk pricing and dairy policy.

Landscape architecture
Landscape architecture, which resides in Ag Hall, originated within the Department of Horticulture, also a college of agriculture unit. Organized as its own department in 1964, it was the first in the country to establish a research program. Today, the department conducts research for the National Park Service, and other federal and state agencies. Scholarship ranges from studying glaciated landscapes of the Upper Great Lakes region to prairie and savanna ecosystems.

Rural sociology
This department, which dates back to 1911, split off from agricultural economics in 1930. It still resides in Ag Hall. Researchers examine rural people and the conditions under which they live and work, and the natural resource and development issues that are typical of nonmetropolitan regions. Rural sociology is organized around four research/outreach themes: population and community, environment and resources, sociology of agriculture and agrofood systems, and labor and development.