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Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Features”
I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute. Early agriculture in the state of Kansas was not always successful. Settlers began increasing in numbers when Kansas was opened to settlement in 1854. Many settlers brought seeds from the east or from their homeland. They planted mostly corn but experimented with crops like oats, cotton, even tobacco. Most did not …
I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute. Early agriculture in what is now the state of Kansas was not easy. The government sent a young frontiersman to help. His name? Daniel Morgan Boone, indeed the son of the famous frontiersman from Kentucky. Now, Boone worked primarily in what is now northeast Kansas, present-day Jefferson County. His work did …
I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute. Edward P. Alice was an entrepreneur who, in 1860, bought a bankrupt firm at a sheriff’s auction, the Reliance Works of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Under his leadership, began producing steam engines and other mill equipment. Thomas Chalmers was a Scottish immigrant to America. He came to the United States about 1842, and …
I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute. The Ralston Purina checkerboard logo is one of the most identifiable logos in American agriculture. It has its history dating back to 1904. The logo came from the company’s founder, William Danforth, who as a child often dressed in checkerboard cloth. We’re not sure this happened out of necessity or by …
I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute. He was an agronomist who played a key role in what’s known as the Green Revolution. His work won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970, later the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor and, later, Presidential Medal of Freedom, all for his work in increasing agricultural production as America continued to …
I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute. The first settlers in Plymouth Colony primarily planted barley and peas brought with them from England. But soon their most important crop would become Indian corn, or maize, as they were shown cultivating and fertilizer techniques from the Squanto Indians. Fertilizer came in the form of small fish. Plantation agriculture would …
I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute. Conveyor-type grain elevators can be traced back to Buffalo, New York in the early 1840s. Buffalo enjoyed a geographic advantage of being at the intersection of two great water routes, one to the east and New York Harbor, and to the west in the Great Lakes. It wouldn’t be long until …
I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute. Franklin King is part of American agriculture history, not well known. Born in 1848 in Whitewater, Wisconsin, King was an agricultural scientist. From 1888 to 1902, he was a professor of agricultural physics at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. And it was there that King taught and began to perfect …
I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute. Contrary to what many believe or were taught, the land the first Europeans saw when landing in the New World did not consist entirely of untouched land and pristine forests. Native American Indians had been skillfully changing the landscape primarily by fire. In addition, since there were no hand tools or …
I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute. Etienne DeBorre is a little-known figure in American agriculture. Born in 1741 in a small village along the Mississippi River in Illinois. Etienne spent most of his life in Louisiana, and it was there that he’s best remembered for producing Louisiana’s first granulated sugar. His innovation encouraged producers there to plant …
