U.S. Vegetable Laboratory

Front: The U.S. Southeastern Regional Vegetable Breeding Laboratory was built here in 1936, the first of nine federal agriculture labs formed under the 1935 Bankhead-Jones Act. In a New Deal-era effort to aid U.S. farmers, lab scientists worked to develop new produce varieties that were pest-resistant, higher-yielding, and hardy enough to grow in the warm, humid climate of the southern U.S. Reverse: Later known as the U.S. Vegetable Laboratory, this facility included many buildings on this 3-acre site and a 451-acre tract across the highway. Experimenting with plants obtained as far away as India, Iran, Mexico, Turkey, and South America, scientists here bred new strains of crops like watermelon, snap peas, tomatoes, and cabbage, distributing seeds to farmers around the region.