I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute.
Roswell Garst and Charlie Thomas founded the Garst and Thomas Hybrid Corn Company in Coon Rapids, Iowa in 1931. The company was instrumental in promoting the use of hybrid corn at the time, and they gained international fame and attention during the Cold War, when Roswell Garst hosted Russian premier Nikita Khrushchev on his farm in 1959.
Garst would eventually sell hybrid seed to the Soviet Union following that visit. The company was bought and sold several times over the next 30 years, and the Garst brand was eventually retired in 2013.
But a great story, beginning in 1931.
That’s today’s American Agriculture History Minute. I’m Mark Oppold. Thanks for reading. I’ll see you next time.