Two weeks ago we learned about the Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women. It was located near Philadelphia. Since we are in the area, this week we will drop in on The Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture. MeeCee Baker, past NAAE President is a member of the Society and is the guest editor for this Footnote. She is the President/CEO of Versant Strategies, a public relations firm in Pennsylvania and can be reached at mbaker@versantstrategies.net. Take it away Dr. Baker
Figure 1. Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture Logo
America 250 PA has been formed to plan celebrations of the United States’ Semiquincentennial or Sestercentennial or Quarter Millennial. In short, the 250th anniversary of our country (in 2026). The Pennsylvania affiliate group’s theme is “Start here, America did!”. The Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776, in Philadelphia. In the same city, 11 years later, the Constitution of the United States was drafted during the summer months of 1787. In between, the country’s oldest ongoing agricultural education organization was formed to explore and advocate for the best practices in agriculture.
The Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of Agriculture (PSPA) was founded in 1785 to increase productivity and in turn prosperity of a new nation. John Beale Bordley approached the American Philosophical Society with the idea of forming an agricultural committee. Upon approval, the initial members being agricultural landholders also represented a variety of professions. The group included politicians, physicians, attorneys, and military personnel. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine became members during this first year, as did George Washington, who was given honorary status since he lived more than ten miles outside of the city, then a requirement for membership. Residency no longer guides membership approval or status. Along with Beale Bordley, some of the last names of the founders may sound familiar: Clymer, Dickinson, Francis, Hill, Nixon, Peters, Thompson, Vaughn, Wilson. PSPA began and remains a nonpartisan and nonprofit organization.
In 1794 the PSPA tried unsuccessfully to get the Pennsylvania legislature to establish a state agricultural society along with a plan for teaching agriculture to the youth. This might have been the first effort to promote agricultural education in America. Davis (1911, p. 267) commented on the PSPA plan by writing “It is especially noteworthy that the plan proposed is in harmony with some present-day practices: the rural school as a community center, correlation of agriculture with other school subjects, and agricultural textbooks.”
The early years found the group investigating such agriculturally oriented topics as the Hessian fly which had affected the wheat crop in Pennsylvania and caused King George III to ban the import of American wheat. There is even a letter dated 1823 in the PSPA archives from James Madison to the PSPA president about the Hessian fly. Research such as this was at the forefront of the Society’s activities as members looked to accomplish tasks like improving depleted soil with crop rotation and developing farm equipment. In 1808, the Memoirs of the Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of Agriculture was published. The memoirs chronicled such concerns as the profitability of dairy farming and timber production at Valley Forge.
Figure 2. Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture’s founder and first Vice-President John Beale Bordley’s sketches of a drill for clustering seed wheat, sent with a letter and additional sketches and notes to the Society, and dated February 16, 1786.
PSPA is also credited with influencing the establishment of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Elizabeth A. Mosimann notes in her history of the society the following quote taken from a 1961 USDA publication, “Some of the seeds sown which later sprouted and grew into the USDA were the early agricultural societies of this country. One of these was the PSPA, organized in 1785. It was the first of such societies to publish the results of its work…Others soon followed. Out of these societies developed the idea that a USDA was needed and possible.” Note that former USDA plant scientist Kevin Hicks, PhD was a past President of the society.
Figure 3. A history of the Society written by Elizabeth Mosimann
The society has held a close affiliation not only with USDA but also with the University of Pennsylvania’s schools of medicine and veterinary medicine. Member Ernest Deubler’s daughter, Josephine, was the first woman to earn a veterinary medical degree from Penn in 1938. An in-depth look at the membership rosters throughout the years until the present lists several Penn faculty members and alumni. In addition to Penn, PSPA has collaborated with organizations and agencies like the Grange and Cooperative Extension Service, as well as agricultural companies such as DuPont (Wilmington, Delaware) and Ball Seeds (Doylestown, PA). The importance and influence of like-minded agriculturally oriented entities has remained a common PSPA thread.
The PSPA remained quite active for its first 100 years. Then, with aging members, the society decided to give its extensive library of meeting records and agricultural documents along with funds to curate and maintain the collection to the University of Pennsylvania in 1888. This donation and the ensuing discovery of the materials led to a revitalization of the ongoing activities of the organization as well as a lasting collaborative relation with Penn. Now, the growing collection includes over 1,000 PSPA records, industry journals, and books covering all aspects of agriculture. The June 1, 2023, meeting of PSPA will tour the association archives at the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center on the Penn Campus. Following see a brief description of the archives taken from the PSPA web site.
Rich in artifactual value, the manuscripts of the early American period also provide uncommon resources for the study of the American farmer’s quest for improved farming practices. As the economy of the new nation became dependent on a scientific approach to farming that would develop agriculture into a strong basic economy, the records of the Society’s correspondence and activities document the results of new methods of planting, fertilizing, harvesting, and the breeding and care of livestock.
Figure 4. Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library, University of Pennsylvania
The May 2023 meeting featured speaker brought National FFA Secretary Jessica Herr, from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to Philadelphia to update the group on what is happening in the surrounding states and nationally. A review of past meetings listed on the PSPA web site showed agricultural education featured over the past almost five decades of listed programming and activities. In January of 1981, the group discussed drafting a letter to the Philadelphia Board of Education in support of Saul High School leasing a farm owned by the city. Then in 1983, PA FFA Treasurer Barry Geib presented awards to Saul students at the PSPA scholarship dinner. The next year, National FFA Program Specialist Ted Amick made a similar presentation. May 2004 shows a field trip to Saul while in 2012 a topical lecture was delivered on, “The National FFA and the Future of Farming.” More recently, Dr. Gary Moore delivered a lecture to PSPA members and students from Saul HS on the history of the New Farmers of America (NFA). Students in attendance were thrilled to take home NFA emblems provided by Moore. Moreover, former National FFA Officer and agricultural entrepreneur Richard Waybright was an active and prominent PSPA member. The group took a field trip to Waybright’s Mason Dixon Farm in 1980 to view the operation’s innovative approaches including a methane digester and a variety of farm equipment developed on site to handle special harvesting needs. Waybright passed in 2016 at the age of 85.
Figure 5. National FFA officer Jessica Herr spoke to the PSPA in May of 2023.
The report of this event can be found here.
Although academic lectures were at one time the most consistent items on the PSPA agenda, regular updates from state Secretaries of Agriculture have become a norm, as Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Russell C. Redding, along with his colleagues from the surrounding states of Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey have addressed the group on numerous occasions. Field trips have been a more frequent occurrence in recent years. For example, the September 2023 meeting will be an on the road investigation of Unique Links in the Agricultural Supply Chain in Lancaster County. In addition, regional agricultural industries of interest have been featured. In March of this year, Lampire Biological Laboratories was the topic of interest. Lampire founder, Greg Krug, credits mentors like PSPA member and former Dean of Delaware Valley College Dr. Jim Diamond with fostering his interest in the intersection of animal and human health. The upcoming October 2023 event will highlight Agriculture at the Campbell Soup Company: Connecting People Through Food They Love Since 1869. Along with regular meetings, PSPA keeps its members informed with a bimonthly newsletter and frequent email updates on current events and agricultural issues of interest.
Figure 6. Feature member Douglas H. Fisher, New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture
In addition to delivery of topical programs, PSPA awards scholarships and medals of honor. Recently, PSPA awarded two scholarships in memory of Dr. Fred Winter, a renowned horticulturalist, and a physician. The winning students each received $1700. One is enrolled at Rutgers and the other Clemson. Each has a strong horticultural background and excellent GPA. In years past, PSPA awarded scholarships to both 4H and FFA members.
Furthermore, the prestigious Gold Medal Award have been given for the past ninety years. Awardees have been recognized for research on such issues as Bang’s Disease and nitrogen utilization in plants. Government and business leaders have also been among the recipients as have companies such as John Deere. In 1953 country agricultural agents at large were awarded the Gold Medal. In 1962, W. T. Spanton, National FFA advisor from 1941 – 1961 was awarded the Gold Medal. (Curator’s Note: The guest editor for this Footnote, MeeCee Baker, received the PSPA Gold Medal in 2017. Click here to see the article in the PSPA newsletter.)
Figure 7. 2020 PSPA Gold Medal of Honor Recipient Kerry Golden, Executive Director PA House Agriculture Committee, shown along with then House Agriculture Chairman Mark Keller
PSPA has held a long and distinguished position of influence in the agricultural and agricultural education sectors. The group has survived and thrived through three centuries managing to bridge the changing times and address husbandry concerns and quandaries and stay relevant in modern American agriculture. Perhaps consider an application for membership in this historic organization.
Activities:
- Peruse the PSPA web site section on Founding Fathers. https://pspaonline.com/category/founding-figures/ Take an individual of interest and do further research on background, career, and life accomplishments. Report back to the class.
- Visit https://www.america250.org/discover/. Submit agriculturally themed ideas for celebrating America’s 250th
- Research other historical agricultural organizations of the 1700 through 1900s. Ask elder family and community members to discuss any involvement and organization mission and accomplishments in video clips. Produce a show featuring the interviews. Share on social media.
Sources:
- https://pspaonline.com/
- https://www.america250.org/about/leadership/commission/
- https://www.library.upenn.edu/detail/collection/philadelphia-society-promoting-agriculture-pspa
- Davis, Benjamin Marshall. The Elementary School Teacher, Jan., 1911, Vol. 11, No. 5.
- Mosimmann, Elizabeth A. Promoting Agriculture in a Changing World 225 Years of the Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of Agriculture 1785-2010. Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of Agriculture.2012