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. In 1860, Horace Greeley wrote in his New York Tribune newspaper, “I would not live in Minnesota because you can’t grow apples there”. Indeed, no one at that time had solved the short growing season, but that finally changed in 1868 when horticulturalist Peter Gideon cultivated and grew an apple that …
I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute. Anna Baldwin is part of American agriculture history. In 1879, she patented the first milking machine that replaced hand milking. Her milking machine was a vacuum device that connected to a hand pump. This is one of the earliest known American patents for the dairy industry. However, it was not a …
I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute. After a long dry trek across what is now Nebraska and Kansas, early settlers saw little or no value when crossing over to what is now Colorado. The soil was even sandier than that in western Kansas, western Nebraska. Rivers were unnavigable. That all changed in the late 1800s when word …
I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute. Early settlers found a lot to like once they crossed the Appalachians and settled in states like Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa. But there was not much to like about Colorado. According to historians, when first settlers arrived there, in fact, many decided the difficult trail through the Rockies onto Oregon …
I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute. Machinery, livestock, and crops have always been needed to be moved around the farm or to market. Two-wheel carts suffice for early settlers. Soon four-wheeled wagons became the norm and were universally used for two centuries. Now it’s impossible, historians say, to pin down the first motor truck. But the first …
I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute. Soybeans were not widely cultivated in the U.S. until the early 1930s, but by 1942, the U.S. became the world’s largest soybean producer. Due, in part, to World War II and the need for fats, oils, and soybean meal. Between 1930 and 1942, the U.S. share of world soybean production grew …
I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute. Joseph Dart is part of American agriculture history. Though born in Connecticut, he soon moved to Buffalo, New York and it was there he conceived of a machine powered grain elevator and in 1842 put one into service, the first in America. Known as Dart’s elevator, other grain elevators were later …
I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute. In 1885, Harriet Strong made a study about the shortage of water in Nevada, including control of floodwaters and water storage. She advocated conservation as a flood remedy, proposing a succession of dams to conserve the water for irrigation purposes and the generation of electricity. In 1887, she was granted a …
I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute. Wheat production grew as new railroads connected farms and markets. In between 1875 and 1890, bonanza farms, as they were called, were created especially in the Red River Valley. They were funded by rich businessmen from the east. Wheat farms covered thousands of acres, hundreds of horses used, and huge teams …
I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute. Early settlers in Minnesota soon discovered they could not grow the same variety of wheat as their counterparts in Nebraska and Kansas, and they soon discovered a more suitable spring wheat. However, they had not yet developed a process to remove the dark bran to produce pure white flour. That all …
