Southern Experiment Station (Waseca, Minn.).

The 1911-1912 University President’s Report explained that “by legislative act in 1911, $35,000 was appropriated for the purpose of establishing a Demonstration and Experiment Farm at Waseca…It is planned to develop the farm along practical lines as a livestock farm…Special attention will be given to the production of corn, oats, and barley for seed. The farm will be made to demonstrate the value of good management, and, so far as possible, practice in farming will be given to those wishing to learn. The superintendent will co-operate with the farmers in the vicinity in the management .of their farms and with the schools and other organized bodies in the development of the agriculture of this section of the State. The farm will be made to serve as a University center for the dissemination of knowledge regarding farm life.”

A committee including representatives from the State of Minnesota and the University selected and purchased 240 acres west and south of Waseca. At their May 6, 1912, meeting, the Regents voted to recommend new official names for all experiment stations under the administrative umbrella of the University’s Department of Agriculture. The facility at Waseca was named the Southeast Demonstration Farm and Experiment Station.

Professor Andrew Boss, Chief of the Division of Agronomy and Farm Management, was responsible for organizing the new Demonstration Farm, and the Farm and Experiment Station began operations in 1913. Albert Hoversten was named the first superintendent.

By 1919, work at the Farm and Station began shifting away from the demonstration concept while experimental work was expanding. At their April 1, 1925, meeting, the Regents voted to approve the recommendation of the Dean of the Department of Agriculture to change the name of the Southeast Demonstration Farm and Experiment Station to the Southeast Experiment Station.

The Legislature authorized a School of Agriculture at Waseca in 1919, but no appropriations were made until 1949. A preliminary plan for the new School of Agriculture was approved at the Board of Regents meeting on April 14, 1950.

At their October 4, 1952, meeting, the Regents voted to re-designate the Southeast Experiment Station as the “Southern Experiment Station, Waseca, Minnesota” and to designate the School of Agriculture as the “Southern School of Agriculture, Waseca, Minnesota.”

The 1952-1954 President’s Report included the following description from the June 19, 1953, dedication of the Southern School of Agriculture, “These facilities…were provided by appropriations of the 1947 and 1949 Legislatures…The new school, serving 38 southern Minnesota counties, opened in the preceding January for men students. Enrollment of women began in the fall of 1953 when facilities were ready for instruction in home economics.” The School offered vocational training at the high school level similar to other University Schools of Agriculture at Morris, Crookston, and Grand Rapids.

The 1952-1954 President’s Report also noted that the principal activity of the Southern Experiment Station was “special breeding work with swine, corn, and soybeans.” And the Station served “as the principal center for study of corn borer resistance and control.”

The 1969 Legislature appropriated planning funds for a Technical College at Waseca. The 1968-1970 President’s Report noted that with the development of the Technical College, which would offer a program to prepare semi-professional graduates for technical areas of agriculture and business, the Southern School of Agriculture program would be phased out. The final academic year of instruction at the School of Agriculture was 1972-1973, and collegiate instruction began in the fall of 1971. The Technical College at Waseca was established as a separate administrative unit from the Southern Experiment Station.

In October 1998, the Educational Planning and Policy Committee of the Board of Regents recommended that branch Experiment Stations change their names to Research and Outreach Centers, and the Board voted unanimously to approve the recommendation at their October 9, 1998, meeting. The Southern Experiment Station became the Southern Research and Outreach Center.

From the guide to the Southern Experiment Station records, 1913-1973, 1979-1990, (University of Minnesota Libraries. University of Minnesota Archives [uarc])