Interview with Lawrence Alan Bradford, November 2, 1984

Interview Summary

Professor Lawrence Alan Bradford was born in Fleming County, Kentucky in 1895. He enrolled in 1913 at the University of Kentucky and graduated in 1917 with his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Agriculture. Bradford later obtained a Master's degree in Education. By 1918, Bradford was a county agent in Bath and Carroll counties completing emergency seed demonstration work. Bradford explains that his first experience in county agricultural agent work was in 1917, a year that the corn crop was late in Kentucky.

Bradford discusses the agricultural situation of the time. He remembers that two fundamental acts were passed in 1914 and 1918. The County Agent Act enabled the states to hire men to work with farmers. The other act allowed the teaching of agriculture in high schools. In 1922, after returning from service in World War One, Bradford was hired by school board of Flemingsburg as a high school agriculture teacher. In addition to his teaching, Bradford states that he spent a great deal of time working on tobacco disease control and developing the hay and pasture land of Kentucky. He describes the Green Pasture Program, through which great advancements were made in developing plants and fertility programs. Bradford also talks about starting the Future Farmer's of America
program in Kentucky, and describes certain organizations he feels were key to improving agriculture and education.

In 1938, Bradford joined UK's College of Agriculture in the Department of Agriculture Economics. Bradford remembers that around 1940, when dams were being built in western Kentucky, some of the best farm land was flooded. Farmers became displaced and so he wrote a pamphlet, Farming is a Business, for those displaced farmers. Later, Bradford and Ben Johnson wrote Farm Management Analysis. After Bradford retired, he wrote The History of the Department of Agriculture Economics of the University of Kentucky.

Interview Keyword

Kentucky's Cooperative Extension Service

Interview LC Subject

Bradford, Lawrence Alan, 1895- Bradford, Lawrence Alan, 1895- --Interviews University of Kentucky University of Kentucky. Cooperative Extension Service Agriculture

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Interview Usage

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