At the turn of the previous century, growing concern over the quality of life for rural Americans prompted President Theodore Roosevelt to appoint a Commission on Country Life in 1908. One of the direct outcomes of the Commission’s recommendations was the passage of the Smith-Lever Act in 1914, which established a national extension service to place the knowledge generated at land-grant universities into the hands of farmers and rural citizens. Beginning in 1913, the Agriculture Extension Service, later known as UC Cooperative Extension, placed farm advisors employed by the University of California in every county that formed a farm bureau and agreed to sponsor Extension Service work. The University of California Cooperative Extension Records for Fresno County span the years of 1914-2000. Records in the collection include annual and historical reports that describe the history of UCCE work in the county. Other materials are organized by series named after several farm advisors active in the county and generally reflect the order in which they were originally maintained. Topics found in these records include the growing and harvesting of almonds, pistachios, and other nuts as well as their irrigation, fumigation, and other activities. Other documents portray soil surveys, soil formation, and fertilizers and there is significant material related to alfalfa and cotton. Themed newsletters about seeds, soil, water, hay and foraging are located in the series named for farm advisor Shannon Mueller. The collection contains a variety of formats including typed reports, data sets, local newsletters, and other crop trial records and documentation. Audiovisual materials are currently being processed and will be made available when processing is complete.
