As University of Nebraska Chancellor, Edgar Burnett successfully built up the agricultural programs, increased enrollment, and buildings at the farm. He spent his Chancellor years during the Great Depression lobbying the legislature for very limited funds and was viewed by faculty as practical but uninspiring. Burnett’s most lasting contribution to the university was founding the University of Nebraska Foundation in 1937 with a bequest from a former faculty member.
Today we are met to do honor to a man whom many of you here today knew personally as a colleague, a neighbor, and a friend. A man who distinguished himself in his services to the state and who contributed much to its agricultural welfare and progress. This man believed earnestly in our state and its chief industry. This faith caused him to become a leader in the life and education of Nebraska and for his accomplishment we honor him today.
E.A. Burnett was born October 17, 1865, and grew up on a farm near Hartland, Michigan. He never lost his interest in farm life and farm people. As a young man he attended Michigan Agricultural College, the first agricultural college in the United States. After his graduation he returned to the home farm and gained several years of practical farm experience, during which he spent one year as manager of a large farm in Canada. Then Michigan State College, his Alma Mater, asked him to come back as an instructor. In 1895 he was called to South Dakota State College to take charge of the livestock program.
The University of Nebraska, little suspecting that it had found a future chancellor, brought him to this state in 1899 as head of the department of animal husbandry and superintendent of Farmers’ Institutes. His first publication for the Nebraska Experiment Station discussed “Sheep Feeding Experiments in Nebraska,” and its first sentence was a statement of pride in his new state. He wrote: “The importance of the sheep-feeding industry in the state results from a combination of natural conditions which has made Nebraska one of the great meat-producing states of the Union.”
In his early years at Nebraska Professor Burnett received help and inspiration from Dr. E. Benjamin Andrews, who came to the University in 1900 as chancellor. Although he had been reared in New England, he believed as did Professor Burnett that the first of Nebraska was dependent upon its agriculture, that prosperity for education in the state would require first prosperity for the farmer.
Chancellor Andrews decided that the young animal husbandry professor was the logical man to lead in developing an agricultural program, and in 1901 Professor Burnett became associate dean of the industrial college under Dr. Bessey. That same year he was appointed director of the Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station. Eight years later, with the establishment of the College of Agriculture, he became its first dean, a position which he held for 18 years. At the end of that time, he was honored with the highest educational office of the state - the chancellorship of the University of Nebraska. He remained its head until ill health forced him to retire 11 years later. He died June 28, 1941, at the age of 75.
My association with Dr. Burnett included a third of a century, and I can tell you first-hand of his many fine contributions to Nebraska agriculture. When he came to Nebraska there was, as compared with today, very little agricultural knowledge that might be included in a college curriculum. The research on which much of our present-day agricultural information is founded was still to be accomplished. It may be of interest to note that most of our agricultural information is new knowledge, largely developed through research in the experiment stations during the past 40 years.
In a considerable degree Dr. Burnett directed the development of the curriculum for agricultural education in our state. When he came to the school institution some farmers, faculty, and students would still joke about young men who would take “book farming.” Many thought that if boys from farming communities were to bother to go to college, they should learn to do something besides farm. Dr. Burnett insisted that the teaching of agriculture should be sound and that if possible it be made applicable to Nebraska conditions. By 1908, courses were well established in most agricultural fields.
The development of the physical plant at the College of Agriculture is in one way an evidence of his contributions in the field of education because the physical plant was necessary to house the instructional work. Only two of the present buildings on the college campus were here when Dr. Burnett came. He foresaw on this campus an agricultural college where young men and women might gain a practical education, but more than that, he recognized the need for research to find the answer to many agricultural problems. Probably even more essential to Nebraska agriculture than classroom teaching has been the work done in the laboratories, field plots, and feeding lots of the experiment station, and in the fields among farmers of the state.
The evolution of Nebraska agriculture in the past 40 years has been great indeed, in some lines almost a revolution. In 1899, when Dr. Burnett came to Nebraska, it was the general practice for Nebraska farmers to use prairie hay and shelled corn in the rationing of their livestock. One of his first undertakings at Nebraska was to demonstrate the value of alfalfa hay in profitable sheep feeding, showing that lambs fed on alfalfa hay and grain made much better gains than those fed on prairie hay and the same grain ration.
He wrote in his first experiment station bulletin at Nebraska back in 1900: “We have long since demonstrated that the wealth-producing power of the state consists in the utilization of her raw materials, by converting them into a concentrated and high-priced product which can pay the cost of the transportation to market and leave a margin of profit for the producer. We are only beginning to learn that it is possible to raise less corn and straw and to produce more sorghum hay, alfalfa, oat hay, etc., to supplement the corn now grown and make a better ration on which to grow mutton.”
True to his practical instincts, Dr. Burnett advocated alfalfa rather than expensive concentrates to balance the feeding ration, and promoted alfalfa production. Mr. George Marshall, who is here today, was with Dr. Burnett at his first talk to farmers urging alfalfa as a hay crop. Mr. Marshall told me a few years ago that there was considerable skepticism at the meeting concerning alfalfa. The farmers could not see the logic of using that good corn land to grow a hay crop when hay was growing wild. Today alfalfa is a basic crop in Nebraska agriculture and today balanced rations are used almost entirely in our state in fattening livestock. The promotion of balanced feeding rations and the adaptation of alfalfa as a major crop has meant millions of dollars to the livestock industry of the state.
When Professor Burnett came to Nebraska, one of the biggest problems before Congress and the nation was the possibility of agriculture in the Great Plains Region, especially west of the 100th meridian. Wave after wave of settlers had moved into sections of the Great Plains, only to be driven back by one crop failure after another.
Professor Burnett realized early that farming conditions in western Nebraska were very different from those farther east, and that for a successful agriculture in western Nebraska a different system would have to be worked out through experimental procedure. The establishment of the substation at North Platte in 1903, to study dry land agriculture, was made under his supervision. Work done at this substation in the adjustment of livestock and crop production, and the proper handling of the soil in conserving moisture, has contributed greatly to the agricultural stability of western Nebraska.
Other experimental substations, one at Scottsbluff to study irrigation agriculture, one at Valentine to represent the Sandhills, and the Union Fruit Farm to study orcharding were added during Dean Burnett’s administration.
It was my fortune to have a part in the study of dry land agriculture. I recall the counsels on procedure and the sage advice of Dean Burnett. With the harvesting of a few good crops, because of better adapted crop varieties and a period of relatively high rainfall, land speculation set in. The good yields were pointed out as indicating that the problems of dry farming had been solved.
Dean Burnett, with others, attempted to combat the unhealthy speculation and in 1907 he said with almost prophetic vision: “The fact that the grain grower has been driven from the land by adverse conditions, often more than once from the same region, is an indication to us that the settlement of the semi-arid region with farmers who depend upon grain production should be well considered. Experiment stations should not be used to exploit the country and to bring into these regions men who cannot or will not practice successful methods of grain growing.”
When Professor Burnett came to Nebraska, dairying was a minor part of agriculture and crudely carried on. Today Nebraska ranks high in that line. Crop rotations, including legumes, were not common. Winter wheat production was confined largely to parts of the South Platte country and the grain was of mediocre quality. Crop breeding was in its infancy. The same was largely true of livestock sanitation and animal health, of irrigation and drainage, of orchard and garden crops, of insect and rodent pests, of poultry, and of diseases of plants such as rust and smut. Advancement in all these lines, along the whole agricultural front, has been made in the last third of a century. The research that may have aided in this development had the sympathetic support of Dr. Burnett as director of the experiment station.
In his own research and in the administration of the agricultural research program, Dean Burnett had foremost in his mind the solution of the practical problems, those that would increase the income of the farmer. His deepest interest was in the people of the land. His own research was planned to assist agriculture and with no thought that it might make a reputation for him.
When Dr. Burnett came to Nebraska he was made superintendent of Farmers’ Institutes. During his second year 177 farmer meetings were held. He realized that if the teaching and research of the college of agriculture were to function fully, they must find application on the land. Farmers were encouraged to visit the college; short courses were offered and well attended.
He had a keen interest in the program for farm people. He believed in adult education and encouraged agricultural extension work from the day he was made superintendent of Farmers’ Institutes until he retired as chancellor of the University. He felt that this work was vital to the best interests of agriculture. He was firm in the belief that teaching, whether in extension or in the classroom, should be practical and sound. His ambitions for the college of agriculture were instilled in the faculty and are our goals today, and we are endeavoring to work toward them. He said: “There is a question as to whether the agricultural college of the future will develop community interests rather than develop the individual. I think both will be done. The colleges must offer courses in socialization of the people if they are to meet the greatest need.”
Agriculture was indeed the great interest of Dr. Burnett’s life. As dean he was a part in transforming the old University Farm into the College of Agricultural. His abilities in the field of agriculture and education were widely recognized. In 1917 his Alma Mater, Michigan State, gave him an honorary degree. During the first world war he was a member of the American Education Corps, and was in charge of agricultural lectures in the first army of the A.E.F. at the University of Beaune, France. In 1925-26 he received the high national honor of being made president of the Association of Land Grant Colleges, and in 1936-37 he was president of the Association of State Universities.
In 1930 Dr. Burnett was honored by the American Society of Animal Production through a dinner at the International Livestock Exchange in Chicago. At that time his picture was presented to the portrait gallery of the Saddle and Sirloin Club where it was hung among a galaxy of men famous for their contributions to the livestock industry of the country. In 1940 Dr. Burnett was honored by the Kiwanis Club of Lincoln through the presentation to him of the Kiwanis medal for outstanding service to the state.
Dr. Burnett’s term as chancellor of the University was second in length only to that of Chancellor Avery whose picture already hangs in our Hall of Agricultural Achievement. His long period of service in the College of Agriculture came during a period of relatively prosperous times. His Chancellorship came during the time of great drought and depression. Though funds were lacking in this period he did everything possible to maintain at the University the high standards that had prevailed. In fact, an outstanding characteristic of his administration, both as Dean and Chancellor, was a desire that growth be on sound lines regardless of it rapidity. At no time was the growth of the University sensational but time will demonstrate that it was on a sound basis. As an executive his cardinal virtue was his patience and his loyalty to those working with him. He was ever sympathetic toward the hopes and aspirations of the staff even though he was not willing to concede a point in question. One of his colleagues in speaking of his administration said, “The thing I cherish most is his consideration for the thoughts and opinions of others and the kindness he has shown in an administrative position.”
With an earnestness that was inspiring, Dr. Burnett thought, planned, and worked for the improvement of the living and economic conditions of the rural people of Nebraska. Reverend McConnell said: “He was a man who never got between his ideals and the people.” We are honoring him today not alone for the things that he accomplished but for the inspiration he imparted to his colleagues who are privileged to carry on in the field of agricultural development.
