Arlington Experimental Farm was a former federal agricultural research farm in Alexandria, Virginia that opened in 1900.[1] It was established by an Act of Congress, moving the Department of Agriculture's main research from the National Mall to Arlington.[2][3] It grew hemp beginning in 1903 (under the cultivation of Lyster Dewey[1]), or 1914.[4] In 1928, it was the largest United States Department of Agriculture experiment station in the Washington, D.C. area.[5] USDA researcher Vera Charles also worked at the station, collecting Cannabis seeds from across America and studying pests and pathogens that could diminish hemp crop productivity.[6] Cultivars developed at Arlington include Arlington, Chington, Ferramington, Kymington and Arlington; Chington and Kymington[a] were adopted "extensively" by seed farmers producing hemp in Kentucky.[9] The seeds were probably destroyed by the government in the 1980s.[10]
In the 1930s, research was transferred to Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland.[11] The land the farm had occupied became Arlington Farms temporary housing during World War II and was developed for the site of The Pentagon and its parking lots.[1]
