soil

How Early Farmers Learned to Protect Their Soil

Dan American Agriculture History Minute, Soil, This Land of Ours

The Dawn of Soil Conservation in Early American Farming In the early years of American settlement, the nation’s farmers often took the vastness of the land for granted. As Mark Oppold explains in this American Agriculture History Minute, early settlers “tended to be careless with the use and care of their soil.” With the seemingly endless frontier before them, many …

early settlers

Farming the Frontier: How Early Settlers Built America

Dan American Agriculture History Minute, This Land of Ours

Life Beyond the Mississippi As settlers moved west across the Mississippi River in the 19th century, they carried with them not only their hopes for a new beginning but also the foundation of American agriculture. This westward migration marked a period of great expansion, where families carved out farms from untamed land and built livelihoods centered on self-reliance and hard …

Rural Electrification

How Rural Electrification Transformed U.S. Farms

Dan Agri-Business, American Agriculture History Minute, Biofuels/Energy, This Land of Ours

Life Before Electricity on the Farm In the early 1930s, life in rural America looked vastly different from city living. Roughly nine out of ten rural homes were without electric power, leaving farm families to rely on daylight for nearly every task. Work began at sunrise and ended when the light faded. Without electricity, homes were illuminated by kerosene lanterns, …