Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “This Land of Ours”
America’s First Agricultural Organization Long before today’s agricultural associations, commodity boards, and farm organizations were established, American farmers and agricultural leaders were already working together to improve farming practices. According to this edition of American Agriculture History Minute, the first organization formed specifically to promote agriculture in America was the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture, established in 1785. The organization …
Archer and Daniels Begin a Linseed Business In 1902, two very different businessmen—George A. Archer and John W. Daniels—joined forces to establish a linseed crushing business that would eventually become part of the story of one of America’s largest agricultural companies: Archer Daniels Midland, better known as ADM. At the time, linseed oil was an important industrial product. Produced from …
Milk production has long been an important part of American agriculture, but determining the quality and value of milk required better ways to measure its components. One scientist whose work transformed the dairy industry was Stephen Babcock, whose research ultimately led to the development of the Babcock Test for measuring milk’s butterfat content. Born on a farm in upstate New …
The Great Depression Creates an Opportunity The Great Depression brought severe economic hardship to rural American families, but for some entrepreneurs, difficult times also created opportunities. One such entrepreneur was a young Missouri farmer named John W. Tyson, who recognized a growing need for fresh poultry in larger Midwestern markets. Beginning in 1931, Tyson began delivering chickens from southern Missouri …
From Settler Clearing to Forest Conservation As early American settlers cleared land for homesteads, farms, and growing communities, the federal government increasingly recognized that the nation’s forests were an important natural resource that needed to be studied and managed. The beginnings of organized federal forest management can be traced to 1876, when Congress created an office within the U.S. Department …
From an Iowa Teenager to a Pioneer in Corn Breeding Long before hybrid seed corn transformed American agriculture, Henry A. Wallace was already experimenting with ways to help farmers produce more corn. His interest began when he was just 16 years old, when the Iowa high school student started field-testing corn with the goal of developing higher-yielding varieties. Wallace continued …
A New Era of Agricultural Education More than a century ago, the United States took a major step toward connecting agricultural research with the farmers who needed it most. The Smith-Lever Act of 1914 established the Cooperative Extension System, creating a formal partnership among the U.S. Department of Agriculture, land-grant universities and local communities. Although the U.S. Department of Agriculture …
Henry A. Wallace is widely remembered as a pioneering figure in American agriculture and as the father of hybrid seed corn. His work helped transform corn production and eventually led to the creation of Pioneer Hi-Bred, one of the most influential seed companies in American agricultural history. But Wallace’s legacy extended far beyond seed genetics. As Mark Oppold explains in …
The Farmers Who Helped Build America As American farm families moved westward and settled the nation’s heartland, they were doing more than establishing farms and communities. Their experiences were becoming an important part of the nation’s history—and eventually, agricultural historians argued, an important source of knowledge for policymakers. For much of American history, however, traditional historical study placed far greater …
A Scottish Vision Comes to the Kansas Prairie In 1873, Scottish cattleman George Grant arrived in Kansas with a bold vision for American agriculture. Grant came from Scotland as part of a group of British settlers who hoped to establish a community of wealthy, stock-raising families on the Kansas prairie. He settled in Victoria, Kansas, where he sought to develop …
