[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 20 (Thursday, February 1, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S1519]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                  USC-RIVERSIDE CITRUS RESEARCH CENTER

 Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, today I ask my colleagues to join 
me in recognizing 100 years of groundbreaking research and education at 
the University of California Riverside's Citrus Research Center--
Agricultural Experiment Station. This year, the university celebrates a 
century of improving our Nation's agriculture, environment, and natural 
resources.
  The idea behind the creation of a citrus experiment center began with 
the pioneering work of Riverside citrus grower John Henry Reed, who 
first proposed the idea in 1900. At the time Riverside was the hub of a 
rapidly expanding citrus industry, in part because refrigeration made 
nationwide shipments possible. His proposal became a reality in 1905 
when the California Legislature passed a measure authorizing the 
establishment of the Citrus Experiment Station in Riverside. By 1907, 
the Citrus Experiment Station became an open branch of the Statewide 
Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of California.
  From that time on, the Citrus Experiment Station continued to grow 
and develop, to become one of California's premier agricultural 
research institutions. In 1914, the station maintained a staff of 18 
with an annual budget of $60,000. Over the next 40 years, the 
Experiment Station's research area grew from 30 acres to almost 1,000 
acres, and staff grew to 265.
  During that time, Leon D. Bachelor, as director, worked to initiate 
many of the long-term fertilizer experiments and worked to ensure the 
strength of the walnut industry through disease research. During his 
tenure, shipping and processing of produce was vastly improved, and 
improvements were implemented in citrus rootstocks, disease resistance, 
and fruit quality.
  While this was taking place, facilities and physical plant 
construction continued to increase as more research stations and 
research buildings were being built. In 1954 Weber Hall was 
constructed, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Boyden Entomological 
Laboratory was built in 1961, and research property increased to 1,100 
acres. There were also advances in research focus, beginning in 1955 
with the arrival of a vegetable crops group from UC Davis. During the 
next year, the Department of Nematology and the Biometrical Laboratory 
were established. Work also came from UCLA focusing on entomology and 
plant pathology on ornamentals.
  Just after this, the Air Pollution Research Center was established on 
the UC Riverside campus, and agronomists from Davis were welcomed to 
join in the research efforts. A Dry Lands Research Institute was added 
in 1963, and in the year following, the UC Riverside campus added a 
Department of Agricultural Engineering. The year after this, the 
Department of Agronomy accepted further work from UCLA on turf grasses.
  With the expansion of research into all of these areas, it became 
clear that the university did not simply research citrus, and the 
Citrus Experiment Station was appropriately renamed the Citrus Research 
Center and Agricultural Experiment Station, CRC-AES, in 1961. A full 
college devoted to this research effort was added in 1974, establishing 
the College of Natural and Agricultrual Sciences.
  Today, UC Riverside agricultural and natural science researchers pave 
the way for many of our Nation's important scientific advances. Studies 
in plant sciences and environmental and natural resources continue to 
improve the quality of life for our Nation and our planet. As the 
Citrus Research Center--Agricultural Experiment Station at the 
University of California, Riverside celebrates its centennial, I 
applaud the tremendous efforts and advances and look forward to another 
century of progress.

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