Preliminary Guide to the Washington State University Agricultural Research Center Records, 1979-1985

The Washington State University Agriculture Research Center (ARC) is a part of WSU’s College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences (CAHNRS). The ARC began in 1892 as the Washington Agricultural Experiment Station, then an element of the Washington Agricultural College, Experiment Station, and School of Science, now Washington State University. Located near Pullman on a farm donated to the state, the station became the site of agricultural instruction and experimental work conducted by the staff of the station and the faculty of the College of Agriculture. It soon extended to branch stations across the state. In 1946 it became part of the Institute of Agricultural Sciences, and in 1965 it was integrated into the newly-organized Agricultural Research Center (ARC) of the College of Agriculture.

Washington State’s commodity commissions are “industry-funded state agencies that promote and fund crop research and/or the marketing of crops.” The commissions are considered governmental agencies as they are state-mandated, but they are governed and funded by growers under the supervision of the state Director of Agriculture. The oldest Washington commodity commission, the Washington Apple Commission, dates to 1937.