Val Kuska, an agricultural agent for the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroads, advocated major irrigation and reclamation projects in Nebraska. Born near Ohiowa, Kuska attended school at Milligan and was graduated from the School of Agriculture at the University of Nebraska.
Experience and knowledge gained during his years when he had managed farms and ranches in parts of western Nebraska, Wyoming, and Colorado, and his studies of farming methods while traveling in Europe, qualified Kuska for the position of farm demonstrator in Madison County in 1914. County agents later replaced farm demonstrators.
After service in World War I, Kuska served as a colonizer for a Denver-based land company and, later, for the Burlington Railroad, helped locate settlers on land owned by the railroad in Colorado and Wyoming. He was also the railroad's agricultural development agent, and promoted irrigation and reclamation projects as well as methods to improve crop and livestock breeding. Believing that irrigation would bring stability to agriculture, he supported projects such as Tri-County and the Republican River irrigation projects. The railroad encouraged agricultural development not only to sell land, but also because it would provide more business for the railroad.
Kuska promoted the County Agricultural Extension Service and 4-H work, and was instrumental in getting legislative support, as well as county level support for these projects. Kuska received the National 4-H Alumni Award in 1954 and the Nebraska County Agents' Association Certificate of Commendation in 1956.
Kuska retired in 1957 and was named to the Nebraska Hall of Agricultural
Achievement in 196l. He died in Lincoln on May 2l, 1972.