October 14, 2002
AMES, Iowa - As part of the on-going Iowa State University Department of Agronomy centennial celebration, ISU agronomy students will fill a time capsule to be opened at the department's 150th anniversary. The students will place their items in the time capsule on Oct. 24 at 3 p.m. in the Agronomy Hall commons. Refreshments will follow.
"We're doing this as one of our Ag Week activities. We selected the items and are hoping to be here in 50 years to open the capsule and tell future agronomy students about them," Kristy Van Tilburg said. Van Tilburg is an ISU agronomy junior and Ag Council representative.
The time capsule will include a listing of current market prices for ag commodities, samples of corn, soybeans and soil, a photo of a farm family, a cell phone, a population map of the world, a manure management plan, toy tractors and more.
The Iowa State Department of Agronomy was created in the College of Agriculture in 1902 and originally included crops, soils and agricultural engineering. The department's history includes involvement in creating numerous producer and agronomist associations, the "seed corn gospel trains" and various advances in hybrid corn development. The department offers five majors and one minor for students interested in crop science, soil science and agricultural meteorology.