Arlington Experimental Farm

Arlington Experimental Farm was a former federal agricultural research farm in Alexandria, Virginia that opened in 1900.[1] It was established by an Act of Congress, moving the Department of Agriculture's main research from the National Mall to Arlington.[2][3] It grew hemp beginning in 1903 (under the cultivation of Lyster Dewey[1]), or 1914.[4] In 1928, it was the largest United States Department of Agriculture experiment station in the Washington, D.C. area.[5] USDA researcher Vera Charles also worked at the station, collecting Cannabis seeds from across America and studying pests and pathogens that could diminish hemp crop productivity.[6] Cultivars developed at Arlington include Arlington, Chington, Ferramington, Kymington and Arlington; Chington and Kymington[lower-alpha 1] were adopted "extensively" by seed farmers producing hemp in Kentucky.[9] The seeds were probably destroyed by the government in the 1980s.[10]

View of the Arlington Experimental Farm, on the southern bank of the Potomac River, October 1907
Kymington cultivar developed by Lyster Dewey at Arlington, growing there in 1917

In the 1930s, research was transferred to Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland.[11] The land the farm had occupied became Arlington Farms temporary housing during World War II and was developed for the site of The Pentagon and its parking lots.[1]

Footnotes
  1. Kymington grown at the Arlington Farm averaged 10 feet (3.0 m) tall,[7] and some Chington plants were 20 feet tall.[8]
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References
  1. "Arlington Experimental Farm". Lyster Dewey archives. Retrieved April 27, 2020.
  2. 56th Congress 1900.
  3. Avery 1928, p. 4.
  4. Avery 1928, p. 17.
  5. Avery 1928, p. 1.
  6. McPartland, Clarke & Watson 2000, p. 7.
  7. Dewey 1928, p. 359.
  8. Dewey 1928, p. 360.
  9. Dewey 1928.
  10. Hoeven 2019.
  11. "USDA history exhibit, 1930–1939". United States Department of Agriculture.

Sources

Further reading

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