In 1912 William Saxby Blair was appointed the centre's first Superintendent, and research began on breeding new fruit varieties, experimenting with planting and harvesting methods, and improving pest and disease resistance.

[6] The centre's research into large-scale food dehydration, canning, and freezing created export opportunities for fruit and vegetable producers that had outgrown the local markets ability to sustain their expansion.

[6] In 1933, Dr. Charles Eaves launched a post-harvest research program at the centre, and in 1939 introduced one of the first atmospherically controlled storage facilities for fruits and vegetables in the western hemisphere.

[8] The centre also expanded its studies to include chicken-egg incubation research, and poultry health and breeding, decreasing by half the time required to raise a 2 kilograms (4.4 lb) chicken.

[6] In 1996 the Honeycrisp apple variety (developed by the University of Minnesota[9]) was recognized as a potential high quality cultivar for Nova Scotia's growing climate, and research began on establishing proper production methods and post-harvest storage.

[19] Study focuses primarily on climate monitoring, soil research (including full botanical and nutritional analysis), estimating pasture biomass, and the analyzing of forage and feed samples.