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Hargreaves reviews the changes in agricultural technology and farm management that occurred in the region (which in this study includes the eastern two-thirds of Montana and the western half of the Dakotas) through the 1920s, the introduction of federal programs as drought and depression recurred in the 1930s, and the realignment of concerns from drought to marketing instability during the recovery years that followed. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
A study of the changes initiated into the systems and culture of the plain dwellers
Have agricultural management efforts begun in the desperation of the Dust Bowl brought us to where we need to be tomorrow? Questions about the environmental footprint of farming make this book required reading. Approximately 62% of the total U.S. land area is used for agriculture, and this land also provides critical ecosystem functions. Authors from each region of the continental United States describe the progress of soil and water conservation to date and visualize how agricultural production practices must change in future years to address the newest challenges.
An epic story of the American wheat harvest, the politics of food, and the culture of the Great Plains For over one hundred years, the Mockett family has owned a seven-thousand-acre wheat farm in the panhandle of Nebraska, where Marie Mutsuki Mockett’s father was raised. Mockett, who grew up in bohemian Carmel, California, with her father and her Japanese mother, knew little about farming when she inherited this land. Her father had all but forsworn it. In American Harvest, Mockett accompanies a group of evangelical Christian wheat harvesters through the heartland at the invitation of Eric Wolgemuth, the conservative farmer who has cut her family’s fields for decades. As Mockett follows Wolgemuth’s crew on the trail of ripening wheat from Texas to Idaho, they contemplate what Wolgemuth refers to as “the divide,” inadvertently peeling back layers of the American story to expose its contradictions and unhealed wounds. She joins the crew in the fields, attends church, and struggles to adapt to the rhythms of rural life, all the while continually reminded of her own status as a person who signals “not white,” but who people she encounters can’t quite categorize. American Harvest is an extraordinary evocation of the land and a thoughtful exploration of ingrained beliefs, from evangelical skepticism of evolution to cosmopolitan assumptions about food production and farming. With exquisite lyricism and humanity, this astonishing book attempts to reconcile competing versions of our national story.
This book uses archaeology to tell 15,000 years of history of the indigenous people of the North American Great Plains.
Dismissed in early years as a wasteland, the rolling open country that covers the interior parts of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho is today one of the richest farmlands in the nation. This work is the story of its transformation. Meinig traces all of the aspects of its development by combining geographic description with historical narrative.
North American Agroforestry Explore the many benefits of alternative land-use systems with this incisive resource Humanity has become a victim of its own success. While we’ve managed to meet the needs—to one extent or another—of a large portion of the human population, we’ve often done so by ignoring the health of the natural environment we rely on to sustain our planet. And by deteriorating the quality of our air, water, and land, we’ve put into motion consequences we’ll be dealing with for generations. In the newly revised Third Edition of North American Agroforestry, an expert team of researchers delivers an authoritative and insightful exploration of an alternative land-use system that exploits the positive interactions between trees and crops when they are grown together and bridges the gap between production agriculture and natural resource management. This latest edition includes new material on urban food forests, as well as the air and soil quality benefits of agroforestry, agroforestry’s relevance in the Mexican context, and agroforestry training and education. The book also offers: A thorough introduction to the development of agroforestry as an integrated land use management strategy Comprehensive explorations of agroforestry nomenclature, concepts, and practices, as well as an agroecological foundation for temperate agroforestry Practical discussions of tree-crop interactions in temperate agroforestry, including in systems such as windbreak practices, silvopasture practices, and alley cropping practices In-depth examinations of vegetative environmental buffers for air and water quality benefits, agroforestry for wildlife habitat, agroforestry at the landscape level, and the impact of agroforestry on soil health Perfect for environmental scientists, natural resource professionals and ecologists, North American Agroforestry will also earn a place in the libraries of students and scholars of agricultural sciences interested in the potential benefits of agroforestry.
Profiting from the Plains looks at two inextricably linked historical movements in the United States: the westward expansion of the great Northern Railway and the agricultural development of the northern plains. Claire Strom explores the persistent, idiosyncratic attempts by the Great Northern to boost agricultural production along its rail routes from St. Paul to Seattle between 1878 and 1917. Lacking a federal land grant, the Great Northern could not make money through land sales like other railways. It had to rely on haulage to make a profit, and the greatest potential for increasing haulage lay in farming. The energetic and charismatic owner of the Great Northern Railway, James J. Hill, spearheaded most of the initiatives undertaken by his corporation to boost agricultural production. He tried, often unsuccessfully, to persuade farmers of the profitability of his methods, which were largely based on his personal farming experience. When Hill�s initial efforts to increase haulage failed, he shifted his focus to working with outside agencies and institutions, often providing them with the funding to pursue projects he hoped would profit his railroad. At the time, state and federal agencies were also promoting agricultural development through irrigation, conservation, and dryland farming, but their agendas often clashed with those of the Great Northern Railway. Because Hill failed to grasp the extent to which politicians� goals differed from those of the railroad, his use of federal expertise to promote agricultural change often backfired. But despite these obstacles, the railroad magnate ironically remained among the last defenders of the small-scale farmer modeled on Jeffersonian idealism. This fascinating story of railroad politics and development ties into themes of corporate and federal sponsorship, which are increasingly recognized as fundamental to western history. As the first scholarly examination of James J. Hill�s agricultural enterprises, Profiting from the Plains makes an important contribution to the biography of the popular and controversial Hill, as well as to western and environmental history.