Courses in field crops and seeds, crop breeding, thremmatology, and farm management were taught at the University’s College of Agriculture beginning in the 1890s, but Agronomy first appeared as a College of Agriculture course in the 1907-1908 University Catalogue. The 1911-1912 President’s Report noted that “the rapid growth of the collegiate attendance (in agriculture-related courses) has required considerable work in the organization and administration of the collegiate curriculum…The curriculum of the College of Agriculture now allows for specialization starting in the junior year” with courses of study offered in Agronomy and Farm Management, Horticulture, Animal Husbandry, Dairy Husbandry, and Special Sciences.
Agronomy and Farm Management was first listed as its own course of study division in the 1913-1914 College of Agriculture Bulletin with Professor Andrew Boss as the Professor of Agronomy and Farm Management and Chief of the Division. The 1913-1914 Bulletin noted that Agronomy gave special attention “to studying the nature and structure of seeds and their behavior in germination.”
The Board of Regents Agricultural Committee voted in June 1926 to change the name of the Division of Agronomy and Farm Management to the Division of Farm Management, Agronomy, and Plant Genetics. Professor Boss was named Chief of this new division.
In April 1928, the Regents’ Agricultural Committee voted to authorize a reorganization of the Division of Economics and the Division of Farm Management, Agronomy, and Plant Genetics into two new divisions: Division of Farm Management and Agricultural Economics, and Division of Agronomy and Plant Genetics.
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Heads of the Division/Department: Agronomy and Farm
Management
- Andrew Boss, Professor and Chief, 1913-1926
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Farm Management, Agronomy, and Plant Genetics
- Andrew Boss, Chief, 1926-1928
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Agronomy and Plant Genetics
- Herbert K. Hayes, Chief, 1928-1932
- Harold K. Wilson, Acting Chief, 1932-1933
- Herbert K. Hayes, Chief, 1933-1952
- Will M. Myers, Chief and Department Head, 1952-1963
- Ernest H. Rinke, Department Head, 1963-1964
- Herbert W. Johnson, Department Head, 1964-1985
- Orvin C. Burnside, Head, 1985-1990
- R. Kent Crookston, Acting Head and Head, 1990-1998
- Burle G. Gengenbach, Interim Head and Head, 1998-2004
From the guide to the Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics records, 1849-2009, (University of Minnesota Libraries. University of Minnesota Archives [uarc])
