William Arnon Henry

Background

William Arnon Henry was born on June 16, 1850, on a farm near Norwalk, Ohio, United States. He was the son of William and Martha Haines (Condict) Henry. He was the fifth child and third son in a family of six children.

Education

When Henry was still in his early teens, his father was called into the Union army. The heavy responsibilities that fell upon the boy undoubtedly helped to develop the great capacity for work for which he was later noted. In order to gain an education he worked his way through college.

After attending Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio, for a year, he had to interrupt his studies to earn money, and between 1871 and 1876 he served as principal of high schools in New Haven, Indiana, and Boulder, Colorado. He then entered the course in agriculture in Cornell University and supplemented his savings by doing whatever work he could find. His ability was soon recognized, and during the latter part of his course he served as student assistant in botany. Even then it was necessary for him to economize to the utmost, so for more than a semester his regular sleeping-place was on the floor in a corner of the laboratory.

In 1880 he received the degree of bachelor of agriculture.

He received honorary degrees from the University of Illinois, University of Vermont, and Michigan State University.

Career

In 1880 Henry was appointed professor of botany and agriculture at the University of Wisconsin. At that time there was not even a department of agriculture in the university; Henry's work in that field embraced the management of the university farm, which was badly run-down, and the development of agricultural methods that would serve the farmers of the state.

Hindered by meager facilities and scant funds for research, Henry began to interest legislators in his work. He was able to convince them that it was wise public policy for the state to support agricultural investigations, and he secured a modest appropriation for investigations on the ensilage of fodders and the manufacture of cane sugar from sorghum cane. This was the first definite state appropriation for research at the university. The mvestigations begun with these funds were instrumental in convincing farmers of the value of silage in livestock feeding and resulted in the erection of more silos in Wisconsin than in any other state. In addition to his agricultural work at the university, Henry met the farmers of the state whenever it was possible and explained to them the value of scientific agriculture. He also stressed the possibilities of the university as an agency of service to the whole citizenry, using every means at his command. In a further effort to interest farm boys in agricultural instruction, he introduced in 1886 the first agricultural short course in America. The idea of giving at a university practical instruction to students who were not graduates of a secondary school at first met with ridicule on the part of many educators, but the short course was exceedingly successful and a somewhat similar plan was adopted in many states.

When the experimental work in agriculture was organized on a more distinct basis in 1887, with the founding of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station, Henry was selected as the first director. In 1891, when the College of Agriculture was established as a separate part of the university, Henry was made its first dean. He continued in these positions until his retirement.

During his years of service as head of the College of Agriculture and Experiment Station, he displayed rare ability in selecting men for his staff who later developed into outstanding leaders in their respective fields. One of these was Stephen Moulton Babcock, the inventor of the Babcock test for determining the amount of butter fat in milk. Henry recognized early that the dairy industry urgently needed an accurate and simple fat test, and he urged Babcock to take up again this problem, upon which he had worked before going to Wisconsin. The chemist persisted in his research, and the Babcock test was announced in 1890. In the same year Henry began the first special dairy course in America, in which practical instruction was given in the testing and manufacture of dairy products.

Although his administrative and teaching duties were heavy, he found time for research on many problems in animal production which were both of practical and scientific importance.

Of his writings his most notable work was Feeds and Feeding, first published in 1898 and many times republished. It became the most widely used text and reference work on livestock feeding in the English language. In its twentieth edition (1936) it appeared under the name of Frank B. Morrison.

Henry gave unsparingly of his time and strength in serving the university. At last his health broke under the strain and in 1907 he retired. Following his retirement Henry spent some time with his son, Arnon Taylor Henry, who was developing a fruit farm in Connecticut. Later he lived successively in Florida and in San Diego, California. He died of pneumonia in San Diego in his eighty-third year.

Achievements

• Henry was among the earliest agriculturists to study the effect upon the growth and development of farm animals of rations ample and deficient in protein and in minerals; the value of silage for livestock; the effect of various methods of preparing feeds for swine; and the value and use of dairy by-products in stock feeding. He continually emphasized the importance of efficiency in farming, and he was a firm advocate of cooperative effort among farmers.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Feeds And Feeding: A Hand-book For The Student And Stockman

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

Connections

Henry married Clara Roxanna Taylor in the summer of 1881. She died in 1904. They had one son, Arnon.

Father:

William Henry

Mother:

Martha Haines (Condict) Henry

Spouse:

Clara Roxanna (Taylor) Henry

Son:

Arnon Henry

References

• fifty famous Farmers
• HUNGER FIGHTERS. Illustrated by Zadig.
• WHOS WHO IN AMERICA 1932-1933 (TWO YEARS)