Although the U.S. agricultural research system is highly esteemed and used as a model for national programs in many developing countries, surprisingly little is known about its operation, which has been publicly funded for nearly a century. This book describes the structure of that system and examines the many factors that influence the choices of research problems by agricultural scientists working within it. The authors show how the research system has evolved through a complex set of negotiations into its present form. They then examine how individuals, organizations, and disciplines...

The State Agricultural Experiment Stations have played a fundamental role in the development of science and agriculture in the United States. From their inception in 1887, the experiment stations have attempted to wed basic research with practical application and have helped institutionalize a utilitarian approach to agricultural science. Agricultural research and the new technology it helped to generate were major factors in the transformation of U.S. agriculture into a high technology, mechanized, science-based industry. Moreover, the experiment stations, as the first large-scale, publicly...