The history of CALS is replete with achievements that have changed the university, the state and the world. From the groundbreaking discovery of Vitamin A to the crucial mass production of penicillin during World War II, CALS scientists, researchers and faculty have always pushed the envelope of cutting-edge innovation. Below are just a few of the amazing discoveries made by those housed within one of the nation’s pre-eminent agricultural colleges.

Information is also available in this PDF of notable dates in the history of CALS, which was published in January, 1989.

• 1890 – Agricultural chemist Stephen Babcock develops test to measure butterfat content in milk. Buyers can now pay farmers according to the fat content of their milk.

• 1894 – No more exploding peas: Bacteriologist Harry Russell develops new, higher-temperature sterilization methods for canned peas and other vegetables, changing industry practices nation-wide.

• 1909 – Nation’s first department of agricultural economics founded at CALS.

• 1910 – Department of what? The college establishes the nation’s first department of genetics, but called it “experimental breeding,” because certain ag leaders doubted that farmers would understand what “genetics” meant.

• 1911 – Charles Galpin is the nation’s first professor of rural sociology. His research on Walworth County established the field.

• 1911 – Plant pathologist J.C. Walker developed strains of cabbage resistant to a fungus that was threatening Wisconsin’s entire crop. This spawned the later development of disease resistance in onions, potatoes, beans, peas and cucumbers.

• 1912 – Two-wheeled agent. College teams with Oneida Co. to hire Wisconsin’s first county ag agent. E.L. Luther visits farms by motorcycle.

• 1913 – CALS biochemists discovered the first vitamin, A, in 1913. Two years later they discovered the vitamin B complex, which opened the field of nutrition for the identification of all the vitamins in the 1940s.

• 1919 – “Hello to all you farmers.” Ag information from the college serves as the content for the nation’s first regular radio broadcasts.

• 1923 – Biochemist Harry Steenbock figures out how to biofortify food with vitamin D by exposing it to ultraviolet light, leading to the almost complete eradication of rickets by the mid-1940s. Also, the college names Prof. O.R. Zeasman as the nation’s first soil erosion specialist.

• 1932 – College hires John Steuart Curry as artist in residence — the first position of its kind in the nation.

• 1933 – College helps Oneida County develop the nation’s first rural zoning ordinance, which served as a national model.

• 1936 – Dairy foods researchers adapt irradiation process to increase vitamin D content of milk.

• 1939 – College establishes world’s first department of wildlife management, headed by Aldo Leopold.

• 1938 – Geneticist Joshua Lederberg discovers sexual reproduction of bacteria. Wins Nobel prize for this work 10 years later.

• 1941 – After a farmer brought to campus a bucket of blood and asked scientists why his cows were bleeding to death, biochemist Karl Paul Link discovered a powerful anticoagulant in spoil sweet clover. He goes on to synthesize various forms of dicumarol, a blood-thinning agent that’s used to treat blood clots and is the basis for Warfarin, a potent rodent killer. The university earned millions from the patents.

• 1941 – Biochemist Henry Lardy devises technique to preserve and store bull semen, making artificial insemination of livestock practical and laying the foundation for the artificial breeding industry and the genetic improvement of dairy cattle herds.

• 1942 – Scientists begin work on mass penicillin production, developing techniques that made a once prohibitively expensive drug affordable and widely available. It was used to treat infections of soldiers injured in World War II.

• 1948 – College crop scientists collaborated on irrigation research that helps makes Wisconsin’s Central Sands — once considered a windblown wasteland — one of the nation’s leading vegetable production areas.