Ramsey County History – Fall 2005: “Ramsey County’s Distinguished Agriculturist: Willet M. Hayes, the Scientist Who Saw ‘Shakespeares’ among His Plants”

Ramsey County’s Distinguished Agriculturist: Willet M. Hayes, the Scientist Who Saw ‘Shakespeares’ among His Plants
Authors: Harlan Stoehr and Forrest Troyer

Willet M. Hays (1859–1928), the first head of agronomic research at the University of Minnesota, is arguably the greatest all-time contributor to the advancement of agriculture in Minnesota. The experiment station system was created in 1887, and twenty-nine-year-old Hays was its first head. He worked off the principles of heredity and sometimes said there were “Shakespeares among plants.” Hays started the use of organized field plots tests and appointed Andrew Boss, who would have a long career at the field station, as farm foreman. Hays worked with farmers to test his crops and convinced the Minnesota Legislature to establish remote experiment stations in Crookston and Grand Rapids. Hays pushed scientific plant and animal breeding, flax development, as well as wheat and alfalfa improvement. Minnesota 13, one of his department’s hybrids, became the country’s most popular corn variety for many years. He was also concerned with the business of farming and was a pioneer of agricultural economics. A prolific author of almost a hundred books and pamphlets, he was considered a good teacher. Hays left Minnesota in 1905 when asked to go to Washington to be assistant secretary of agriculture, a post he held for many years.
PDF of Stoehr & Troyer article