Thursday, February 26, 2009

Tarleton Thursdays: Did You Know?


















John Tarleton Agricultural College Dairy Barn - 1919


Tarleton is getting a new dairy barn…well not exactly…it is getting a new state of the art Southwest Regional Dairy Center which will serve not only Tarleton but the rest of Texas and surrounding states as a learning and research dairy! Groundbreaking is set for tomorrow, Friday, February 27, 2009, at 10 a.m.

Tarleton has long been an agricultural school. John Tarleton wanted the local children with few resources to have a place to get a useful education. Through the years Tarleton agriculture students have excelled in many areas of agriculture and won in contests such as dairy judging, soil judging, horse judging, intercollegiate rodeo, and meat judging, to name a few. At one time the poultry division even held egg laying contests.

In 1917 Tarleton became a part of the A & M System and the name was changed to John Tarleton Agricultural College. Here you see Tarleton’s first dairy barn, built in 1919. The 1919 Grassburr states that “the college dairy barn will house the grade Guernsey herd which is being built up. The main room will accommodate forty-eight cows, and is provided with every convenience and sanitary device which a dairyman could wish. It is provided with shower baths, tool room, engine room, wash room, can airing room, laboratory and office. When the college herd outgrows the present structure a fifty-foot wing will be added to the west.”

Wow! We have certainly come a long way!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

These bits of history with tie-ins to current events at Tarleton are very interesting. Thanks!