College creameries

In 1861, a Representative, Justice Smith Morrell, introduced into the United States Congress a bill to set aside public lands to finance the establishment of agricultural colleges in every state in the Union. The bill was passed and became known as the Morrell Act.⁽¹⁾ The purpose of the act was to preserve for the future generations the rich natural resources of the soil and to give to each generation an opportunity to study the production of farm products.

All the states availed themselves of this splendid plan of financing State Agriculture Colleges. All phases of agriculture were incorporated in courses of study of curricula by each college. Dairying, because it is a very important phase of agriculture, was among the subjects taught. In order to study dairying in a practical way, college herds had to be maintained for feed studies, for production studies, for breeding studies, and for judging.

With cows in a college herd giving milk, there was the problem of marketing the milk to the best advantage. This problem and the growing demand for college trained men in Dairy Manufacturing gave rise to the establishment of college creameries, which is the subject of this thesis.