Established as a result of the Hatch Act of 1887, the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station is the research arm of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Iowa State University. The Experiment Station conducts multidisciplinary research to help solve the complex agricultural problems facing scientists and farmers today. This collection contains pamphlets and memos published by the Experiment Station during World War II. These publications were produced to address specific concerns related to farm and food policy during wartime. A significant document in this collection is Pamphlet No. 5, Putting Dairying on War Footing. This publication caused a controversy at Iowa State because it promoted the production and consumption of oleo margarine instead of butter. The resulting backlash by the dairy industry forced the college to publish a revised edition which in turn resulted in the departure of several researchers in protest.

The Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station was founded at Iowa State as a result of legislation passed by the U.S. Congress in 1887. Known as the Hatch Act, the legislation provided for the funding of agricultural research at Land Grant Colleges. On March 1, 1888, the Iowa General Assembly approved the terms of the Hatch Act and the Iowa Experiment Station was established. Administrative oversight of the Experiment Station was assigned to the Board of Trustees of the Iowa Agricultural College (Iowa State University). The Board, in turn, elected Captain R. P. Speer as the first director of the Experiment Station.

Early efforts of the Experiment Station staff involved establishing an orchard and planting experimental plots of grains, grasses, and vegetables on the campus grounds. Starting in 1888, the Experiment Station published quarterly Bulletins that described activities and results of the research conducted by the staff. Many of these results are also included in annual reports prepared by the director. In 1911, the staff, which by this time consisted of a combination of specialized researchers and a part-time teaching force, first published research bulletins and soon offered the first research fellowships.

Since its inception, the Experiment Station has existed under the auspices of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and it is not surprising that the Dean of the College also holds the title of Director of the Experiment Station. Although it serves as the research arm of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the Experiment Station also supports programs in almost every other college at Iowa State and at a number of off-campus research facilities in the surrounding area. During the earliest years of its existence, Experiment Station research focused on soil, crops, horticulture, and dairying. Today, research conducted by Experiment Station staff has become over-arching in scope and multidisciplinary in practice reflecting the complexity of agricultural problems facing scientists and farmers today.

This collection (1941-1945) contains wartime farm and food policy publications produced by the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station during World War II. These memos and pamphlets discuss price controls for farm crops and other economic aspects affecting food production during the war. A significant document in this collection is Pamphlet No. 5, which, in 1943, the Wartime Food and Policy group published as Putting Dairying on War Footing. This publication caused a controversy at Iowa State because it promoted the production and consumption of oleo margarine in place of butter. Due to heavy lobbying efforts by the state and national dairy industry, the college produced a revised version of the pamphlet which was more to the dairy industry's liking. However, as a result many key Iowa State researchers departed, including Theodore W. Schultz, who would later receive a Nobel Prize in economics for his work at the University of Chicago.

Related collections in the Special Collections Department, Iowa State University Library include:

Publications of the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station include:

The collection is organized alphabetically.