The University of Massachusetts Amherst traces its origins to the Massachusetts Agricultural College, founded in 1863 under the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act, which offered its first classes in 1867. It became Massachusetts State College in 1931 and the University of Massachusetts in 1947. Its By the Numbers page lists more than 31,000 students.
Agriculture is taught in the Stockbridge School of Agriculture, within the College of Natural Sciences, which offers associate, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programmes in areas including arboriculture, horticulture, applied plant and soil sciences, sustainable food and farming and turfgrass science. Its faculty work with the Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment (CAFE), a UMass Extension unit whose work includes the Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station. CAFE lists farms and facilities including the Crop and Animal Research and Education Farm in South Deerfield, the Cold Spring Orchard Research and Education Center, the Cranberry Station and the Joseph Troll Turf Research Center. The school says CAFE’s agriculture research programme supports around 8,000 farms in Massachusetts.