The College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources traces its history to the 1846 recommendation of UT President Cooke that an agricultural department be formed, at the urging of Middle and West Tennessee farmers. The board of trustees formed a committee to consider this recommendation, but apparently nothing was done. In 1869 UT (then East Tennessee University) was designated as Tennessee’s land-grant institution. One of the requirements placed upon the institution by the legislature was that it own two hundred acres of land suitable for agriculture. The institution purchased two tracts known as the South Farm, or College Farm, consisting of slightly more than one hundred acres, and the North Farm, which was mostly unimproved land covered with brush or trees. The North Farm, consisting of almost one hundred acres, was contiguous to the South Farm.
The Agricultural Course was established in 1869, and Professor Hunter Nicholson was elected professor of agriculture and horticulture, also in 1869. In 1877 the university was “reorganized.” The board created a College of Agriculture, a College of Mechanic Arts and Engineering, and retained the Classical College. The “college” designation did not represent significant curricular change from the previous “course” curricula. In 1888 President Dabney organized all undergraduate instruction into a College of Agriculture, Mechanic Arts, and Science.
In 1905 President Ayres recreated the College of Agriculture, but this was primarily a curricular division. In 1913 President Morgan delegated a variety of administrative matters to the colleges, and the title of “dean” was employed to designate the head of the college. The name of the college was changed from College of Agriculture to College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources in 1990 to better reflect the current programs of the college.