The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agricultural engineering research began in the Division of Irrigation Investigations in the Office of Experiment Stations in 1898. By 1915, the Division of Agricultural Engineering was created within the Office of Public Roads and Rural Engineering, Bureau of Plant Industry. Agricultural engineering attained bureau status in 1931and included the Divisions of Irrigation Drainage and Soil Erosion Control; Mechanical Equipment; Structures; and plans and Services. In 1939 a new bureau was created called the Bureau of Agricultural Chemistry and Engineering, followed in 1943 by establishment of the Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils, and Agricultural Engineering. The USDA reorganized in 1953 and the new Agricultural Engineering Research Branch became part of the Agricultural Research Service. In 1957 the branch became its own division with four branches including Crop production, Livestock Engineering and Farm Structures, Harvesting and Farm Processing, and Farm Electrification. -- M. Conner Ahrens was former assistant chief of the USDA Farm Electrification Research Branch; Arthur William Turner was Assistant Chief for the Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils, and Agricultural Engineering beginning 1943.
From the description of USDA Division of Agricultural Engineering : records, 1913-1981. 1919-1940. (National Agricultural Library). WorldCat record id: 643095763
