Archives West Finding Aid

The Montana Agriculture Department was provided for in the Montana Constitution of 1889, and was established on February 17, 1893. By the early 1960s the department, headed by an appointed commissioner, included seven divisions: Administration, Dairy, Weights and Measures, Grain and Marketing, Horticulture, Commercial Feeds and Fertilizer, and Agricultural Statistics. The Administration Division was responsible for payroll, budgeting, and all financing, filing and issuing of licenses to commercial feed and fertilizer manufacturers and to all the grain dealers that came under the state's grain and marketing laws. These dealers included all the elevators and truckers in the grain trade, as well as other firms clssified as grain dealers. The dealers were bonded by the department to insure full protection of the grain stored. The Dairy Division enforced the egg-grading and oleomargarine laws, tested the butterfat content of milk in distributing plants, and inspected the state's 500 creameries and ice cream fountains for product quality and sanitation violations. The Weights and Measures Division checked for accuracy all livestock auction market scales, grain elevator scales, store scales, as well as scales belonging to individual farmers and ranchers on request; calibrated and checked all retail gasoline pumps in the state; inspected the meters of gasoline line delivery trucks; and monitored propane and butane meters and all wholesale and retail pipelines and distributers in the state. The Grain Standards and Marketing Division operated a laboratories in Great Falls, Harlowton, and Montana State College in Bozeman. The division was responsible for sampling, grading, and protein-testing of all grains; enforced the Montana Agricultural Seed Law, insuring that all seed was properly labeled and that the seed met germination and weed-content standards. In 1961 the division was checking over 2,500 railroad carloads of wheat per month. The Horticulture Division inspected all incoming and outgoing produce to insure that grading was correct and that the produce was insect-free, and enforced any quarantines in effect. The Commercial Feeds and Fertilizer Division enforced the Montana Commercial Feed Law and the Montana Commercial Fertilizer Law. Commercial feeds produced or sold in Montana had to conform to division standards. Correspondingly all fertilizers sold within the state had to be registered with this division, by paying a fee and providing proof of analysis. The Agricultural Statistics Division compiled the figures required for the department's annual report and for compliance with federal requirements. The commissioner of agriculture was authorized to issue regulations to clarify any portion of the law applying to the department, but he was prohibited from changing the intent or meaning of the law established by the Montana Legislative Assembly. The commissioner was, moreover, chairman of the Montana Real Estate Commission, and a member of the Montana Soil and Water Conservation Committee and of the Board of Hail Insurance, and several other boards, including many gubernatorial committees such as for the state's civil defense. Albert Kruse was appointed commissioner of the Department of Agricultureby Governor Sam C. Ford in April 1941 and held that office until April 1949. He was reappointed as commissioner by Governor J. Hugo Aronson in April 1953 and served until his retirement in January 1961. Albert Kruse died on January 2, 1963. He was born in Garrett, Illinois, on August 26, 1892, and moved to Montana in November 1914, and farmed near Brusett. A Republican, Kruse served as a representative from Garfield County for seven sessions in the Legislative Assembly beginning in 1929. Edward C. Wren was born in Great Falls on September 29, 1918. Following high school Wren worked for the Anaconda Mining Company as a laborer for three years. In 1939 he joined the sales and advertising force of Eddy Baking Co. and worked in the main office in Helena. In March 1941 Wren was drafted into the army and served in the infantry until his discharge in 1946. He returned to the Eddy Baking Co. and worked as manager of the company's plant in Grand Forks, North Dakota, leaving that position to become a radio announcer in Great Falls. In 1948 he bought a ranch near Cascade which he operated until January 1, 1961, when he was appointed commissioner of agriculture by Governor Nutter. On January 25, 1961, an airplane carrying Governor Nutter, Commissioner Wren, the governor's executive secretary, and three crew members crashed and burned killing all aboard. C. Lowell Purdy was born in Milbank, South Dakota, on February 2, 1914. He moved with his family to the Havre, Montana, area where his father was a banker and farmer. Purdy grew up on a farm near Kremlin and attended high school and Northern Montana College in Havre, and graduated from Montana State University Missoula. Following graduation Purdy worked with the Farm Security Administration's resettlement program near Malta before returning to the farm. In 1962 Governor Tim Babcock appointed Purdy to fill Wren's unexpired term and was reappointed to that office in 1965. Purdy retired in 1969.