Alfred Charles True

At Wesleyan, he got to know Wilbur O. Atwater, who in 1888 founded the Office of Experiment Stations at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

In 1915, he became director of the States Relations Service, which the Office of Experiment Stations had become part of.

[1] True had charge of investigations in irrigation, drainage and human nutrition, and supervised the federal work and expenditures for agricultural experiment stations in all the states and in Alaska and Hawaii (both territories at that time) and Puerto Rico and Guam.

He also supervised federal work and expenditures for co-operative extension work in agriculture and home economics throughout the United States under the Smith-Lever Act of 8 May 1914, together with investigations in home economics and agricultural education.

[1] True particularly studied the organization and management of institutions for agricultural education and research, and published several monographs on this subject, chiefly in the bulletins of the Office of Experiment Stations, including: Beginning 1923, he devoted himself mostly to the production of three monographs:[1] For ten years he was chief editor of the Experiment Station Record and the Experiment Station Work.