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Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “This Land of Ours”
I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute. A small chemical manufacturing company opened its doors in 1957 in West Helena, Arkansas near the Mississippi River south of Memphis. Today the company is headquartered just outside Memphis and known as Helena Agri Enterprises and is one of the largest contract chemical manufacturers in the country, providing formulations and packaging …
I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute. There were a lot of agricultural discoveries in the travels of Lewis and Clark, not just discovering new lands. Historians note that as the expedition journeyed up the Missouri River in search of the Northwest Passage, members of the expedition took careful notes on agricultural practices they encountered. Native American Indians …
I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute. We begin today with a question. What state is referred to as the grass seed capital of the world? That would be Oregon. Oregon leads the nation in hazelnut and grass seed production. Its agriculture is quite diverse from even other states along the west coast. Oregon is consistently a top …
I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute. Corn has always been an important part of American agriculture history, but shelling it – usually by hand – was a difficult one for families, and the process normally was a community affair, family and friends gathering together for a shelling bee. Mechanical corn shellers were introduced in the 1800s as …
I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute. Significant areas of farmland were abandoned during the Great Depression and incorporated into national forests. And that began more land stewardship with farmers and ranchers, and, reversed a decades-long trend of destruction of land that really can be traced to 1942. When farmers and ranchers were encouraged to plant all possible …
I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute. Corn of course holds a major part of American agriculture history, but very early on corn was typically shelled by hand and used for things like fuel for heating, fertilizer, of course cattle feeding, and bedding. The process of shelling corn, though, was a community affair. Family and friends gathered at …
I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute. From roughly the 1920s to the 1940s, harvesting corn by hand was a necessity. Today, the National Corn Husking Association keeps that tradition going the third weekend in October each year to determine who is the best corn husker. There are 12 classes from 10 to 30 minutes long that people …
I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute. Ohio State University was founded in 1870 as a land-grant university under the Morrill Act of 1862. And the name Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College. Initially it was thought one of Ohio’s two existing universities. Ohio University and Miami University, would be designated as the land-grant institution. And each, in fact, …
I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute. President Thomas Jefferson was especially eager to gain control of the crucial Mississippi River port in New Orleans. Jefferson tasked James Monroe and Robert Livingston with purchasing New Orleans. Negotiating with the French, the American representatives quickly agreed to purchase the entire territory of Louisiana after it was offered. Overcoming the …
I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute. Early settlers would learn that weather would often dictate the crops they would raise. In cooler regions, wheat was often the crop of choice when lands were newly settled, leading to a wheat frontier that continued to move west and, over now, what is the plains? Also a very common corn. …
