1.
Wheat
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Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region but now cultivated worldwide. In 2016, world production of wheat was 749 million tonnes, making it the second most-produced cereal after maize, since 1960, world production of wheat and other grain crops has tripled and is expected to grow further through the middle of the 21st Century. This grain is grown on land area than any other commercial food. World trade in wheat is greater than for all other crops combined, globally, wheat is the leading source of vegetal protein in human food, having a protein content of about 13%, which is relatively high compared to other major cereals and staple foods. The archaeological record suggests that wheat was first cultivated in the regions of the Fertile Crescent around 9600 BCE. In a small part of the population, gluten – the major part of wheat protein – can trigger coeliac disease, non-coeliac gluten sensitivity, gluten ataxia. Cultivation and repeated harvesting and sowing of the grains of wild grasses led to the creation of domestic strains, in domesticated wheat, grains are larger, and the seeds remain attached to the ear by a toughened rachis during harvesting. In wild strains, a more fragile rachis allows the ear to easily shatter, as the traits that improve wheat as a food source also involve the loss of the plants natural seed dispersal mechanisms, highly domesticated strains of wheat cannot survive in the wild. Cultivation of wheat began to spread beyond the Fertile Crescent after about 8000 BCE, jared Diamond traces the spread of cultivated emmer wheat starting in the Fertile Crescent sometime before 8800 BCE. Archaeological analysis of wild emmer indicates that it was first cultivated in the southern Levant with finds dating back as far as 9600 BCE, Genetic analysis of wild einkorn wheat suggests that it was first grown in the Karacadag Mountains in southeastern Turkey. Dated archeological remains of wheat in settlement sites near this region, including those at Abu Hureyra in Syria. With the anomalous exception of two grains from Iraq ed-Dubb, the earliest carbon-14 date for einkorn wheat remains at Abu Hureyra is 7800 to 7500 years BCE. Remains of harvested emmer from several sites near the Karacadag Range have been dated to between 8600 and 8400 BCE, that is, in the Neolithic period and these remains were dated by Willem van Zeist and his assistant Johanna Bakker-Heeres to 8800 BCE. They also concluded that the settlers of Tell Aswad did not develop this form of emmer themselves, the cultivation of emmer reached Greece, Cyprus and India by 6500 BCE, Egypt shortly after 6000 BCE, and Germany and Spain by 5000 BCE. The early Egyptians were developers of bread and the use of the oven, by 3000 BCE, wheat had reached the British Isles and Scandinavia. A millennium later it reached China, the oldest evidence for hexaploid wheat has been confirmed through DNA analysis of wheat seeds, dating to around 6400-6200 BCE, recovered from Çatalhöyük. The first identifiable bread wheat with sufficient gluten for yeasted breads has been identified using DNA analysis in samples from a dating to approximately 1350 BCE at Assiros in Macedonia. From Asia, wheat continued to spread throughout Europe, in the British Isles, wheat straw was used for roofing in the Bronze Age, and was in common use until the late 19th century
2.
Idaho
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Idaho is a state in the northwestern region of the United States. It borders the state of Montana to the east and northeast, Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, to the north, it shares a small portion of the Canadian border with the province of British Columbia. With a population of around 1.7 million people and an area of 83,569 square miles, Idaho is the 14th largest, the states capital and largest city is Boise. Idaho prior to European settlement was inhabited solely by Native American peoples, in the early 19th century, Idaho was considered part of the Oregon Country, an area disputed between the U. S. and the United Kingdom. Idaho was eventually admitted to the Union on July 3,1890, forming part of the Pacific Northwest, Idaho is divided into several distinct geographic and climatic regions. In the states north, the relatively isolated Idaho Panhandle is closely linked with Eastern Washington, the states south includes the Snake River Plain, while the south-east incorporates part of the Great Basin. Idaho is quite mountainous, and contains several stretches of the Rocky Mountains, additionally, around 38 percent of Idahos land is held by the United States Forest Service, the most of any state. Industries significant for the economy include manufacturing, agriculture, mining, forestry. Idahos agricultural sector supplies a number of different products, but the state is best known for its potato crop, the official state nickname is the Gem State, which references Idahos reputation for gemstones and, more broadly, its many wilderness areas. The exact origin of the remains a mystery. Willing later claimed that he had invented the name. Congress ultimately decided to name the area Colorado Territory when it was created in February 1861, thinking they would get a jump on the name, locals named a community in Colorado Idaho Springs. However, the name Idaho did not fall into obscurity, the same year Congress created Colorado Territory, a county called Idaho County was created in eastern Washington Territory. The county was named after a steamship named Idaho, which was launched on the Columbia River in 1860 and it is unclear whether the steamship was named before or after Willings claim was revealed. Regardless, a portion of Washington Territory, including Idaho County, was used to create Idaho Territory in 1863. Despite this lack of evidence for the origin of the name, the name Idaho may be derived from the Plains Apache word ídaahę́, which means enemy. The Comanches used this word to refer to the Idaho Territory, a 1956 Idaho history textbook says, Idaho is a Shoshoni Indian exclamation. The word consists of three parts, the first is Ee, which in English conveys the idea of coming down
3.
Tractor
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A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery used in agriculture or construction. Most commonly, the term is used to describe a farm vehicle that provides the power and traction to mechanize agricultural tasks, especially tillage, but nowadays a great variety of tasks. Agricultural implements may be towed behind or mounted on the tractor, the word tractor was taken from Latin, being the agent noun of trahere to pull. The first recorded use of the meaning an engine or vehicle for pulling wagons or ploughs occurred in 1901. In Canada and the USA, the word may refer to the road tractor portion of a tractor trailer truck. The first powered farm implements in the early 19th century were portable engines – steam engines on wheels that could be used to drive farm machinery by way of a flexible belt. Richard Trevithick designed the first semi-portable stationary steam engine for use, known as a barn engine in 1812. The truly portable engine was invented in 1839 by William Tuxford of Boston, a large flywheel was mounted on the crankshaft, and a stout leather belt was used to transfer the drive to the equipment being driven. In the 1850s, John Fowler used a Clayton & Shuttleworth portable engine to drive apparatus in the first public demonstrations of the application of cable haulage to cultivation. In parallel with the portable engine development, many engineers attempted to make them self-propelled – the fore-runners of the traction engine. In most cases this was achieved by fitting a sprocket on the end of the crankshaft and these experiments met with mixed success. The alteration was made by fitting a long driving chain between the crankshaft and the rear axle. The first half of the 1860s was a period of great experimentation but by the end of the decade the standard form of the engine had evolved. It was widely adopted for agricultural use, the first tractors were steam-powered plowing engines. They were used in pairs, placed on side of a field to haul a plow back. In Britain Manns and Garrett developed steam tractors for direct ploughing, in the United States, where soil conditions permitted, steam tractors were used to direct-haul plows. Steam-powered agricultural engines remained in use well into the 20th century until reliable internal combustion engines had been developed, in 1892, John Froelich invented and built the first gasoline/petrol-powered tractor in Clayton County, Iowa, USA. A Van Duzen single-cylinder gasoline engine was mounted on a Robinson engine chassis, after receiving a patent, Froelich started up the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company and invested all of his assets
4.
Agriculture
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Agriculture is the cultivation and breeding of animals, plants and fungi for food, fiber, biofuel, medicinal plants and other products used to sustain and enhance human life. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of human civilization. The study of agriculture is known as agricultural science, the history of agriculture dates back thousands of years, and its development has been driven and defined by greatly different climates, cultures, and technologies. Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture farming has become the dominant agricultural methodology, genetically modified organisms are an increasing component of agriculture, although they are banned in several countries. Agricultural food production and water management are increasingly becoming global issues that are fostering debate on a number of fronts, the major agricultural products can be broadly grouped into foods, fibers, fuels, and raw materials. Specific foods include cereals, vegetables, fruits, oils, meats, fibers include cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax. Raw materials include lumber and bamboo, other useful materials are also produced by plants, such as resins, dyes, drugs, perfumes, biofuels and ornamental products such as cut flowers and nursery plants. The word agriculture is a late Middle English adaptation of Latin agricultūra, from ager, field, Agriculture usually refers to human activities, although it is also observed in certain species of ant, termite and ambrosia beetle. To practice agriculture means to use resources to produce commodities which maintain life, including food, fiber, forest products, horticultural crops. This definition includes arable farming or agronomy, and horticulture, all terms for the growing of plants, even then, it is acknowledged that there is a large amount of knowledge transfer and overlap between silviculture and agriculture. In traditional farming, the two are often combined even on small landholdings, leading to the term agroforestry, Agriculture began independently in different parts of the globe, and included a diverse range of taxa. At least 11 separate regions of the Old and New World were involved as independent centers of origin, wild grains were collected and eaten from at least 105,000 years ago. Pigs were domesticated in Mesopotamia around 15,000 years ago, rice was domesticated in China between 13,500 and 8,200 years ago, followed by mung, soy and azuki beans. Sheep were domesticated in Mesopotamia between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago. From around 11,500 years ago, the eight Neolithic founder crops, emmer and einkorn wheat, hulled barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas and flax were cultivated in the Levant. Cattle were domesticated from the aurochs in the areas of modern Turkey. In the Andes of South America, the potato was domesticated between 10,000 and 7,000 years ago, along with beans, coca, llamas, alpacas, sugarcane and some root vegetables were domesticated in New Guinea around 9,000 years ago. Sorghum was domesticated in the Sahel region of Africa by 7,000 years ago, cotton was domesticated in Peru by 5,600 years ago, and was independently domesticated in Eurasia at an unknown time
5.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
6.
United States Census of Agriculture
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The census is a complete count of U. S. farms and ranches and the people who operate them. The Census looks at land use and ownership, operator characteristics, production practices, income and expenditures and this picture, when compared to earlier censuses, helps to measure trends and new developments in the agricultural sector of our nation’s economy. Title 7 of the United States Code requires all those who receive a census report form to respond – even if they did not operate a farm or ranch during the census year, the same law protects the confidentiality of all census respondents. NASS uses the only for statistical purposes and publishes data only in tabulated totals. The report cannot be used for purposes of taxation, investigation or regulation, the privacy of individual census records is also protected from disclosure through the Freedom of Information Act. For census purposes, a farm is defined as a place from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products were produced and sold, or normally would have been sold, during the census year. This farm definition has changed nine times throughout history and the current definition has been in effect since 1974, the first Census of Agriculture was taken in 1840 as part of the sixth decennial population census. The census remained a part of the census through 1950. As time passed, census years were adjusted until the reference year coincided with the economic censuses covering other sectors of the nation’s economy, currently, the Census of Agriculture is conducted for years ending in 2 and 7. Census data is used by all those who serve farmers and rural communities – federal, state and local governments, agribusinesses, trade associations, for instance, Companies and cooperatives use the information to determine the locations of facilities that will serve agricultural producers. Community planners use the information to target needed services to rural residents, USDA uses the information to ensure that local service centers are staffed at appropriate levels. Legislators use the information when shaping farm policies and programs, farmers and ranchers use Census data to help make informed decisions about the future of their own operations. Census of Agriculture — official website NASS web site 7 U. S. C, § 2204g, Authority of Secretary of Agriculture to conduct census of agriculture
7.
Great Plains
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The region is known for supporting extensive cattle ranching and dry farming. The Canadian portion of the Plains is known as the Prairies, some geographers include some territory of northern Mexico in the Plains, but many stop at the Rio Grande. The term Great Plains is used in the United States to describe a sub-section of the even more vast Interior Plains physiographic division and it also has currency as a region of human geography, referring to the Plains Indians or the Plains States. There is no region referred to as the Great Plains in The Atlas of Canada, in terms of human geography, the term prairie is more commonly used in Canada, and the region is known as the Prairie Provinces or simply the Prairies. The region is about 500 mi east to west and 2,000 mi north to south, much of the region was home to American bison herds until they were hunted to near extinction during the mid/late 19th century. It has an area of approximately 500,000 sq mi, current thinking regarding the geographic boundaries of the Great Plains is shown by this map at the Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The term Great Plains, for the region west of about the 96th or 98th meridian, nevin Fennemans 1916 study, Physiographic Subdivision of the United States, brought the term Great Plains into more widespread usage. Before that the region was almost invariably called the High Plains, today the term High Plains is used for a subregion of the Great Plains. The Great Plains are the westernmost portion of the vast North American Interior Plains, during the Cretaceous Period, the Great Plains were covered by a shallow inland sea called the Western Interior Seaway. However, during the Late Cretaceous to the Paleocene, the seaway had begun to recede, leaving thick marine deposits. During the Cenozoic era, specifically about 25 million years ago during the Miocene and Pliocene epochs, existing forest biomes declined and grasslands became much more widespread. The grasslands provided a new niche for mammals, including many ungulates and glires, traditionally, the spread of grasslands and the development of grazers have been strongly linked. The vast majority of animals became extinct in North America at the end of the Pleistocene. In general, the Great Plains have a variety of weather through the year, with very cold and harsh winters and very hot. Wind speeds are very high, especially in winter. Grasslands are among the least protected biomes, humans have converted much of the prairies for agricultural purposes or to create pastures. The Great Plains have dust storms mostly every year or so, the 100th meridian roughly corresponds with the line that divides the Great Plains into an area that receive 20 in or more of rainfall per year and an area that receives less than 20 in. The region is subjected to extended periods of drought, high winds in the region may then generate devastating dust storms
8.
Great Lakes
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Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth, containing 21% of the worlds surface fresh water by volume. The total surface is 94,250 square miles, and the volume is 5,439 cubic miles. Due to their sea-like characteristics the five Great Lakes have also long been referred to as inland seas, Lake Superior is the second largest lake in the world by area, and Lake Michigan is the largest lake that is entirely within one country. The southern half of the Great Lakes is bordered by the Great Lakes Megalopolis, the lakes have been a major highway for transportation, migration and trade, and they are home to a large number of aquatic species. Many invasive species have been introduced due to trade, and some threaten the regions biodiversity, though the five lakes reside in separate basins, they form a single, naturally interconnected body of fresh water, within the Great Lakes Basin. The lakes form a chain connecting the interior of North America to the Atlantic Ocean. From the interior to the outlet at the Saint Lawrence River, water flows from Superior to Huron and Michigan, southward to Erie, the lakes drain a large watershed via many rivers, and are studded with approximately 35,000 islands. There are also several smaller lakes, often called inland lakes. The surface area of the five primary lakes combined is roughly equal to the size of the United Kingdom, while the area of the entire basin is about the size of the UK. Lake Michigan is the one of the Great Lakes that is located entirely within the United States. The lakes are divided among the jurisdictions of the Canadian province of Ontario and the U. S. states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. Both Ontario and Michigan include in their boundaries portions of four of the lakes, Ontario does not border Lake Michigan, New York and Wisconsins jurisdictions extend into two lakes, and the remaining states into one of the lakes. This designation, however, is not universal and those living on the shore of Lake Superior often refer to all the other lakes as the lower lakes, because they are farther south. This corresponds to thinking of Lakes Erie and Ontario as down south, vessels sailing north on Lake Michigan are considered upbound even though they are sailing toward its effluent current. The Chicago River and Calumet River systems connect the Great Lakes Basin to the Mississippi River System through man-made alterations, the St. Marys River, including the Soo Locks, connects Lake Superior to Lake Huron. The Straits of Mackinac connect Lake Michigan to Lake Huron, the St. Clair River connects Lake Huron to Lake St. Clair. The Detroit River connects Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie, the Niagara River, including Niagara Falls, connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. The Welland Canal, bypassing the Falls, connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, the Saint Lawrence River connects Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which connects to the Atlantic Ocean
9.
Corn Belt
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The Corn Belt is a region of the Midwestern United States where corn has, since the 1850s, been the predominant crop, replacing the native tall grasses. By 1950, 99% of the corn was grown from hybrids, most corn is fed to livestock, especially hogs and poultry. In recent decades soybeans have grown in importance, the U. S. produces 40% of the world crop. Geographic definitions of the region vary, typically, it is defined to include, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, southern Michigan, western Ohio, eastern Nebraska, eastern Kansas, southern Minnesota and parts of Missouri. As of 2008, the top four corn-producing states were Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska and Minnesota, the Corn Belt is sometimes defined to include parts of South Dakota, North Dakota, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Kentucky. The region is characterized by relatively level land and deep, fertile soils, in the era from 1860 to 1970, new agricultural technology transformed the Corn Belt from a mixed crop-and-livestock farming area to a highly specialized cash-grain farming area. While the landscape was greatly modified, the farm remained the normal form. Its acreage doubled, as farmers bought out their neighbors, former Vice President Henry A. Wallace, a pioneer of hybrid seeds, declared in 1956 that the Corn Belt developed the most productive agricultural civilization the world has ever seen. In 1997, the USEPA published its report on United States ecoregions and its Level III region classification contains three contiguous Corn Belt regions, Western, Central, and Eastern, stretching from Indiana to eastern Nebraska. L. Industrializing the Corn Belt, Agriculture, Technology, and Environment, 1945-1972238 pp. ISBN 978-0-87580-392-0 Bogue, from Prairie to Corn Belt, Farming on the Illinois and Iowa Prairies in the Nineteenth Century excerpt and text search Cayton, Andrew, et al. eds. The American Midwest, An Interpretive Encyclopedia excerpt and text search Hart, change in the Corn Belt, Geographical Review, Jan 1986, Vol. 76#1 pp 51–72 Hudson, John C. Making the Corn Belt, A Geographical History of Middle-Western Agriculture Power, planting Corn Belt Culture, The Impress of the Upland Southerner and Yankee in the old Northwest Snapp, Roscoe R. Beef Cattle Their Feeding and Management in the Corn Belt States Smith, C. Corn, Origin, History, Technology, and Production online edition Wallace, Henry A. Wallaces Irrigation Frontier, On the Trail of the Corn Belt Farmer 190915 articles written by Wallace in 1909,1991 edition edited by Richard Lowitt, and Judith Fabry
10.
Heterosis
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Heterosis, hybrid vigor, or outbreeding enhancement, is the improved or increased function of any biological quality in a hybrid offspring. The adjective derived from heterosis is heterotic, an offspring exhibits heterosis if its traits are enhanced as a result of mixing the genetic contributions of its parents. These effects can be due to Mendelian or non-Mendelian inheritance, in proposing the term heterosis to replace the older term heterozygosis, G. H. Shull aimed to avoid limiting the term to the effects that can be explained by heterozygosity in Mendelian inheritance, inbreeding depression occurs when related parents have children with traits that negatively influence their fitness largely due to homozygosity. In such instances, outcrossing should result in heterosis, not all outcrosses result in heterosis. For example, when a hybrid inherits traits from its parents that are not fully compatible and this is a form of outbreeding depression. Dominance versus overdominance is a controversy in the field of genetics that has persisted for more than a century. These two alternative hypotheses were first stated in 1908, when a population is small or inbred, it tends to lose genetic diversity. Inbreeding depression is the loss of fitness due to loss of genetic diversity, inbred strains tend to be homozygous for recessive alleles that are mildly harmful. Heterosis or hybrid vigor, on the hand, is the tendency of outbred strains to exceed both inbred parents in fitness. Selective breeding of plants and animals, including hybridization, began long before there was an understanding of underlying scientific principles, in the early 20th century, after Mendels laws came to be understood and accepted, geneticists undertook to explain the superior vigor of many plant hybrids. Two competing hypotheses, which are not mutually exclusive, were developed, the dominance hypothesis attributes the superiority of hybrids to the suppression of undesirable recessive alleles from one parent by dominant alleles from the other. It attributes the poor performance of inbred strains to loss of genetic diversity, the dominance hypothesis was first expressed in 1908 by the geneticist Charles Davenport. Certain combinations of alleles that can be obtained by crossing two inbred strains are advantageous in the heterozygote, the overdominance hypothesis attributes the heterozygote advantage to the survival of many alleles that are recessive and harmful in homozygotes. It attributes the poor performance of inbred strains to a percentage of these harmful recessives. The overdominance hypothesis was developed independently by Edward M, Dominance and overdominance have different consequences for the gene expression profile of the individuals. If over-dominance is the cause for the fitness advantages of heterosis. On the other hand, if dominance is the cause, fewer genes should be under-expressed in the heterozygous offspring compared to the parents, furthermore, for any given gene, the expression should be comparable to the one observed in the fitter of the two parents
11.
George Washington Carver
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George Washington Carver, was an American botanist and inventor. The exact day and year of his birth are unknown, he was born into slavery in Missouri, either in 1861, Carvers reputation is largely based on his promotion of alternative crops to cotton, such as peanuts and sweet potatoes. He wanted poor farmers to grow alternative crops both as a source of their own food and as a source of products to improve their quality of life. The most popular of his 44 practical bulletins for farmers contained 105 food recipes using peanuts and he spent years developing and promoting numerous products made from peanuts, none were commercially successful. He was also a leader in promoting environmentalism and he received numerous honors for his work, including the Spingarn Medal of the NAACP. In an era of high racial polarization, his fame reached beyond the black community. He was widely recognized and praised in the community for his many achievements and talents. In 1941, Time magazine dubbed Carver a Black Leonardo, Carver was born into slavery in Diamond Grove, Newton County, near Crystal Place, now known as Diamond, Missouri, possibly in 1864 or 1865, though the exact date is not known. His master, Moses Carver, was a German American immigrant who had purchased Georges parents, Mary and Giles, from William P. McGinnis on October 9,1855, Carver had 10 sisters and a brother, all of whom died prematurely. When George was only an old, he, a sister. Georges brother, James, was rushed to safety from the kidnappers, the kidnappers sold the slaves in Kentucky. Moses Carver hired John Bentley to find them, but he located only the infant George, Moses negotiated with the raiders to gain the boys return, and rewarded Bentley. After slavery was abolished, Moses Carver and his wife Susan raised George and they encouraged George to continue his intellectual pursuits, and Aunt Susan taught him the basics of reading and writing. Black people were not allowed at the school in Diamond Grove. There was a school for black children 10 miles south in Neosho, when he reached the town, he found the school closed for the night. He slept in a nearby barn, by his own account, the next morning he met a kind woman, Mariah Watkins, from whom he wished to rent a room. When he identified himself as Carvers George, as he had done his whole life, she replied that from now on his name was George Carver. George liked Mariah Watkins, and her words, You must learn all you can, then go out into the world and give your learning back to the people
12.
Bioplastic
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Bioplastics are plastics derived from renewable biomass sources, such as vegetable fats and oils, corn starch, or microbiota. Bioplastic can be made from agricultural by-products and also used plastic bottles. Common plastics, such as plastics, are derived from petroleum or natural gas. Production of such plastics tends to more fossil fuels and to produce more greenhouse gases than the production of biobased polymers. Some, but not all, bioplastics are designed to biodegrade, Biodegradable bioplastics can break down in either anaerobic or aerobic environments, depending on how they are manufactured. Bioplastics can be composed of starches, cellulose, biopolymers, bioplastics are used for disposable items, such as packaging, crockery, cutlery, pots, bowls, and straws. They are also used for bags, trays, fruit and vegetable containers and blister foils, egg cartons, meat packaging, vegetables. These plastics are used in non-disposable applications including mobile phone casings, carpet fibers, insulation car interiors, fuel lines. New electroactive bioplastics are being developed that can be used to carry electric current, in these areas, the goal is not biodegradability, but to create items from sustainable resources. Medical implants made of PLA, which dissolve in the body, compostable mulch films can also be produced from starch polymers and used in agriculture. These films do not have to be collected after use on farm fields, biopolymers are available as coatings for paper rather than the more common petrochemical coatings. Thermoplastic starch currently represents the most widely used bioplastic, constituting about 50 percent of the bioplastics market, simple starch bioplastic can be made at home. Pure starch is able to absorb humidity, and is thus a suitable material for the production of drug capsules by the pharmaceutical sector, flexibiliser and plasticiser such as sorbitol and glycerine can also be added so the starch can also be processed thermo-plastically. The characteristics of the resulting bioplastic can be tailored to specific needs by adjusting the amounts of these additives, starch-based bioplastics are often blended with biodegradable polyesters to produce starch / polycaprolactone or starch/Ecoflex. These blends are used for applications and are also compostable. Other producers, such as Roquette, have developed other starch/polyolefin blends and these blends are not biodegradable, but have a lower carbon footprint than petroleum-based plastics used for the same applications. Cellulose bioplastics are mainly the cellulose esters, and their derivatives, bioplastics can be made from proteins from different sources. For example wheat gluten and casein show promising properties as a raw material for different biodegradable polymers, the aliphatic biopolyesters are mainly polyhydroxyalkanoates like the poly-3-hydroxybutyrate, polyhydroxyvalerate and polyhydroxyhexanoate
13.
Biofuel
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Biofuels can be derived directly from plants, or indirectly from agricultural, commercial, domestic, and/or industrial wastes. Renewable biofuels generally involve contemporary carbon fixation, such as those that occur in plants or microalgae through the process of photosynthesis, other renewable biofuels are made through the use or conversion of biomass. This biomass can be converted to convenient energy-containing substances in three different ways, thermal conversion, chemical conversion, and biochemical conversion and this biomass conversion can result in fuel in solid, liquid, or gas form. This new biomass can also be used directly for biofuels, bioethanol is an alcohol made by fermentation, mostly from carbohydrates produced in sugar or starch crops such as corn, sugarcane, or sweet sorghum. Cellulosic biomass, derived from sources, such as trees and grasses, is also being developed as a feedstock for ethanol production. Ethanol can be used as a fuel for vehicles in its pure form, bioethanol is widely used in the USA and in Brazil. Current plant design does not provide for converting the portion of plant raw materials to fuel components by fermentation. Biodiesel is produced from oils or fats using transesterification and is the most common biofuel in Europe, in 2010, worldwide biofuel production reached 105 billion liters, up 17% from 2009, and biofuels provided 2. 7% of the worlds fuels for road transport. Global ethanol fuel production reached 86 billion liters in 2010, with the United States and Brazil as the top producers. The worlds largest biodiesel producer is the European Union, accounting for 53% of all production in 2010. As of 2011, mandates for blending biofuels exist in 31 countries at the national level, the International Energy Agency has a goal for biofuels to meet more than a quarter of world demand for transportation fuels by 2050 to reduce dependence on petroleum and coal. The production of biofuels also led into an automotive industry. There are various social, economic, environmental and technical issues relating to production and use. Most transportation fuels are liquids, because vehicles usually require high energy density and this occurs naturally in liquids and solids. High energy density can also be provided by a combustion engine. The fuels that are easiest to burn cleanly are typically liquids, thus, liquids meet the requirements of being both energy-dense and clean-burning. In addition, liquids can be pumped, which means handling is easily mechanized, first-generation or conventional biofuels are made from sugar, starch, or vegetable oil. Biobutanol is often claimed to provide a replacement for gasoline
14.
Mechanised agriculture
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Mechanised agriculture is the process of using agricultural machinery to mechanise the work of agriculture, greatly increasing farm worker productivity. In modern times, powered machinery has replaced many farm jobs formerly carried out by labour or by working animals such as oxen. The entire history of agriculture contains many examples of the use of tools, such as the hoe, but the ongoing integration of machines since the Industrial Revolution has allowed farming to become much less labour-intensive. Current mechanised agriculture includes the use of tractors, trucks, combine harvesters, countless types of implements, aeroplanes and helicopters. Precision agriculture even uses computers in conjunction with satellite imagery and satellite navigation to increase yields, mechanisation was one of the large factors responsible for urbanisation and industrial economies. Besides improving production efficiency, mechanisation encourages large scale production and sometimes can improve the quality of farm produce, on the other hand, it can displace unskilled farm labour and can cause environmental degradation, especially if it is applied shortsightedly rather than holistically. Jethro Tulls seed drill was a mechanical seed spacing and depth placing device that increased crop yields and it was an important factor in the British Agricultural Revolution. Since the beginning of agriculture threshing was done by hand with a flail, the threshing machine, which was invented in 1794 but not widely used for several more decades, simplified the operation and allowed the use of animal power. Before the invention of the cradle a able bodied labourer could reap about one quarter acre of wheat in a day using a sickle. It was estimated that for each of Cyrus McCormicks horse-pulled reapers freed up five men for service in the US Civil War. Later innovations included raking and binding machines, by 1890 two men and two horses could cut, rake and bind 20 acres of wheat per day. In the 1880s the reaper and threshing machine were combined into the combine harvester and these machines required large teams of horses or mules to pull. Steam power was applied to threshing machines in the late 19th century, there were steam engines that moved around on wheels under their own power for supplying temporary power to stationary threshing machines. These were called road engines, and Henry Ford seeing one as a boy was inspired to build an automobile, with internal combustion came the first modern tractors in the early 1900s, becoming more popular after the Fordson tractor. At first reapers and combine harvesters were pulled by tractors, the horse population in the US began to decline in the 1920s after the conversion of agriculture and transportation to internal combustion. Peak tractor sales in the US were around 1950, in addition to saving labour, this freed up much land previously used for supporting draft animals. The continuous supply of workers from Latin America that were willing to harvest the crops for low wages further suppressed the need for mechanisation. Asparagus are presently harvested by hand with labour costs at 71% of production costs, asparagus is a difficult crop to harvest since each spear matures at a different speed making it difficult to achieve a uniform harvest
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Intensive farming
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Intensive farming or intensive agriculture is any of various types of agriculture that involve higher levels of input and output per unit of agricultural land area. It is characterised by a low ratio, higher use of inputs such as capital and labour. This is in contrast to agriculture in which the inputs per unit land are lower. The term intensive has various senses, some of which refer to organic farming methods and others of which refer to nonorganic, both increase the yields of food and fiber per acre as compared to traditional animal husbandry. In CAFO, feed is brought to the animals, while in MIRG the animals are repeatedly moved to fresh forage. Most commercial agriculture is intensive in one or more ways, forms that rely especially heavily on industrial methods are often called industrial agriculture, which is characterised by innovations designed to increase yield. Techniques include planting multiple crops per year, reducing the frequency of fallow years, intensive farms are widespread in developed nations and increasingly prevalent worldwide. Most of the meat, dairy, eggs, fruits and vegetables available in supermarkets are produced by such farms, smaller intensive farms usually include higher inputs of labor and more often use sustainable intensive methods. The farming practices commonly found on farms are referred to as appropriate technology. These farms are widespread in both developed countries and worldwide, but are growing more rapidly. Most of the food available in specialty markets such as farmers markets is produced by these smallholder farms, agricultural development in Britain between the 16th century and the mid-19th century saw a massive increase in agricultural productivity and net output. This in turn supported unprecedented population growth, freeing up a significant percentage of the workforce, historians cited enclosure, mechanization, four-field crop rotation, and selective breeding as the most important innovations. Industrial agriculture arose along with the Industrial Revolution, by the early 19th century, agricultural techniques, implements, seed stocks and cultivars had so improved that yield per land unit was many times that seen in the Middle Ages. The industrialization phase involved a process of mechanization. Horse-drawn machinery such as the McCormick reaper revolutionized harvesting, while inventions such as the cotton gin reduced the cost of processing, during this same period, farmers began to use steam-powered threshers and tractors, although they were expensive and dangerous. Mechanical harvesters, planters, transplanters and other equipment were then developed and these inventions increased yields and allowed individual farmers to manage increasingly large farms. The identification of nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus as critical factors in plant growth led to the manufacture of synthetic fertilizers, in 1909 the Haber-Bosch method to synthesize ammonium nitrate was first demonstrated. Farmers adopting this approach were initially referred to as humus farmers, chemicals developed for use in World War II gave rise to synthetic pesticides
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John Deere
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Deere & Company is an American corporation that manufactures agricultural, construction, and forestry machinery, diesel engines, drivetrains used in heavy equipment, and lawn care equipment. In 2016, it was listed as 97th in the Fortune 500 Americas ranking and was ranked 364th in the Fortune Global 500 ranking in 2016, John Deere also provides financial services and other related activities. Deere is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbols DE, the companys slogan is Nothing Runs Like a Deere, and its logo is a leaping deer, with the words JOHN DEERE under it. The logo of the deer has been used by this company for over 155 years. Over the years, the logo has had changes and pieces removed. Some of the older style logos have the deer leaping over a log, the company uses different logo colors for agricultural vs. construction products. The companys agricultural products are identifiable by a shade of green paint. While the construction products are identifiable by a shade of black with the deer being yellow, and the inside border also being yellow. Deere & Company began when John Deere, born in Rutland, Vermont, USA on February 7,1804, moved to Grand Detour, Illinois in 1836 in order to escape bankruptcy in Vermont. Small tools was just a start, the item that set him apart, was the steel plow. Prior to Deeres steel plow, most farmers used iron or wooden plows that the rich Midwestern soil stuck to and had to be cleaned frequently. The smooth sided steel plow solved this problem, and greatly aided migration into the American Great Plains in the 19th, the traditional way of doing business was to make the product as and when it was ordered. Word of his products began to spread quickly, in 1842, Deere entered a business partnership with Leonard Andrus and purchased land for the construction of a new two-story factory along the Rock River in Illinois. This factory, named the L. Andrus Plough Manufacturer, produced about 100 plows in 1842, Deeres partnership with Andrus ended in 1848, and Deere relocated to Moline, Illinois in order to have access to the railroad and the Mississippi River. There, Deere formed a partnership with Robert Tate and John Gould, Production rose quickly, and by 1849, the Deere, Tate & Gould Company was producing over 200 plows a month. A two story addition to the plant was built, allowing further production, Deere bought out Tate and Goulds interests in the company in 1853, and was joined in the business by his son Charles Deere. At that time, the company was manufacturing a variety of farm equipment products in addition to plows, including wagons, in 1857, the companys production totals reached almost 1,120 implements per month. In 1858, a financial recession took a toll on the company
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Cyrus McCormick
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Cyrus Hall McCormick was an American inventor and businessperson, the founder of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, which later became part of the International Harvester Company in 1902. From the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, he and many members of his family became prominent residents of Chicago. Even greater than his achievement as an inventor was his success in the development of a company, with manufacturing, marketing. Cyrus McCormick was born on February 15,1809 in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and he was the eldest of eight children born to inventor Robert McCormick, Jr. and Mary Ann Polly Hall. As Cyrus father saw the potential of the design for a mechanical reaper and he worked for 28 years on a horse-drawn mechanical reaper to harvest grain, however, he was never able to reproduce a reliable version. He was aided by Jo Anderson, an enslaved African American on the McCormick plantation at the time, a few machines based on a design of Patrick Bell of Scotland were available in the United States in these years. The Bell machine was pushed by horses, the McCormick design was pulled by horses and cut the grain to one side of the team. Cyrus McCormick held one of his first demonstrations of mechanical reaping at the village of Steeles Tavern. He claimed to have developed a version of the reaper in 18 months. The young McCormick was granted a patent on the reaper on June 21,1834, however, none were sold, because the machine could not handle varying conditions. The McCormick family also worked together in a smelting business. The panic of 1837 almost caused the family to go into bankruptcy when a partner pulled out, in 1839 McCormick started doing more public demonstrations of the reaper, but local farmers still thought the machine was unreliable. He did sell one in 1840, but none for 1841, using the endorsement of his fathers first customer for a machine built by McPhetrich, Cyrus continuously attempted to improve the design. He finally sold seven reapers in 1842,29 in 1843 and they were all built manually in the family farm shop. He received a patent for reaper improvements on January 31,1845. As word spread about the reaper, McCormick noticed orders arriving from farther west, where farms tended to be larger and the land flatter. While he was in Washington, DC to get his 1845 patent, he heard about a factory in Brockport, New York and he also licensed several others across the country to build the reaper, but their quality often proved poor, which hurt the products reputation. In 1847, after their fathers death, Cyrus and his brother Leander moved to Chicago, at the time, other cities in the midwestern United States, such as Cleveland, Ohio, St. Louis, Missouri, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, were more established and prosperous
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Eli Whitney
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Eli Whitney was an American inventor best known for inventing the cotton gin. This was one of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution, Whitneys invention made upland short cotton into a profitable crop, which strengthened the economic foundation of slavery in the United States. Despite the social and economic impact of his invention, Whitney lost many profits in legal battles over patent infringement for the cotton gin, thereafter, he turned his attention into securing contracts with the government in the manufacture of muskets for the newly formed United States Army. He continued making arms and inventing until his death in 1825, Whitney was born in Westborough, Massachusetts, on December 8,1765, the eldest child of Eli Whitney Sr. a prosperous farmer, and his wife Elizabeth Fay, also of Westborough. Although the younger Eli, born in 1765, could technically be called a Junior and he was famous during his lifetime and afterward by the name Eli Whitney. His son, born in 1820, also named Eli, was known during his lifetime and afterward by the name Eli Whitney, Jr. Whitneys mother, Elizabeth Fay, died in 1777. At age 14 he operated a profitable nail manufacturing operation in his fathers workshop during the Revolutionary War, because his stepmother opposed his wish to attend college, Whitney worked as a farm laborer and school teacher to save money. He prepared for Yale at Leicester Academy and under the tutelage of Rev. Elizur Goodrich of Durham, Connecticut, he entered the class of 1789 and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1792. Whitney expected to study law but, finding himself short of funds, instead of reaching his destination, he was convinced to visit Georgia. In the closing years of the 18th century, Georgia was a magnet for New Englanders seeking their fortunes, when he initially sailed for South Carolina, among his shipmates were the widow and family of the Revolutionary hero Gen. Nathanael Greene of Rhode Island. Mrs. Greene invited Whitney to visit her Georgia plantation, Mulberry Grove and her plantation manager and husband-to-be was Phineas Miller, another Connecticut migrant and Yale graduate, who would become Whitneys business partner. Whitney is most famous for two innovations which later divided the United States in the century, the cotton gin. In the South, the cotton gin revolutionized the way cotton was harvested and reinvigorated slavery, in the North the adoption of interchangeable parts revolutionized the manufacturing industry, and contributed greatly to the U. S. victory in the Civil War. The cotton gin is a device that removes the seeds from cotton. The word gin is short for engine, the cotton gin was a wooden drum stuck with hooks that pulled the cotton fibers through a mesh. The cotton seeds would not fit through the mesh and fell outside, a single cotton gin could generate up to 55 pounds of cleaned cotton daily. Whitney received a patent for his cotton gin on March 14,1794, Whitney and his partner, Miller, did not intend to sell the gins. Rather, like the proprietors of grist and sawmills, they expected to charge farmers for cleaning their cotton – two-fifths of the value, resentment at this scheme, the mechanical simplicity of the device and the primitive state of patent law, made infringement inevitable
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Fordson
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Fordson was a brand name of tractors and trucks. The latter also built trucks under the Fordson brand, further prototypes, with a dedicated tractor design, followed in 1916. With World War I raging in Europe, the first regular-production Henry Ford & Son tractors were exported to the U. K. in 1917 to expand British agriculture. In 1918, exports continued, the tractors began to be labeled as Fordsons, sales boomed in 1918 and 1919. As with cars, Ford never had the market to itself, Ford was the only automotive firm to sell cars, trucks and tractors simultaneously from 1917 to 1928. For a decade between 1928 and 1939, Ford of the U. S. left the tractor business, during that decade, Ford of England continued to build Fordsons and to develop new variants, which it exported widely. In 1939 Ford of the U. S. reentered the market with an all-new model. Ford of England continued to use the Fordson brand until 1964, Fordson production occurred in the U. S. Cork, Ireland, and at Dagenham, Essex, England. Tens of thousands of Fordsons, most from the U. S. Soviet Fordson clones were also built at Leningrad from 1924 and at Stalingrad from 1930. Henry Ford grew up in a family of farmers in Wayne County a few miles from Detroit. At the time, farm work was arduous, because on the typical farm virtually nothing could get done without manual labour or animal labour as the motive power. As his interest in automobiles grew, he expressed a desire to lift the burden of farming from flesh and blood and place it on steel. In the early 20th century, he began to build experimental tractors from automobile components, four years after founding the Ford Motor Company in 1903, Ford finished his first experimental tractor in 1907 on Woodward Avenue in Detroit, referring to it as the Automobile Plow. Approximately 600 gasoline-powered tractors were in use on American farms in 1908, Fordson tractor design was headed by Eugene Farkas and József Galamb, both involved in the design of the successful Ford Model T automobile. Traction engines had been around for a while, but they were large, heavy, in the early 1910s, North America and Europe were hungry for small, inexpensive tractors, and many people seized on the Model T as a platform with which to create them. Clearly the idea of a tractor, made using auto-like parts. Henry Ford experimented with both auto-plows and heavier tractors, in August 1915, at a plowing demonstration in Fremont, Nebraska, he introduced a newly designed tractor known as the Model B. It used a 16 horsepower, two-cylinder, horizontally opposed engine, the Model B was never produced, but did gain enough publicity to let the world know Ford was interested in developing a tractor
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Combine harvester
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The combine harvester, or simply combine, is a machine that harvests grain crops. The name derives from its three separate operations comprising harvesting—reaping, threshing, and winnowing—into a single process. Among the crops harvested with a combine are wheat, oats, rye, barley, corn, sorghum, soybeans, flax, sunflowers, and canola. Combine harvesters are one of the most economically important labour saving inventions, Scottish inventor Patrick Bell invented the reaper in 1826. The combine was invented in the United States by Hiram Moore in 1834, early versions were pulled by horse, mule or ox teams. In 1835, Moore built a version and by 1839. By 1860, combine harvesters with a cutting, or swathe, australian Hugh Victor McKay produced a commercially successful combine harvester in 1885, the Sunshine Harvester. Combines, some of them large, were drawn by mule or horse teams. Later, steam power was used, and George Stockton Berry integrated the combine with an engine using straw to heat the boiler. At the turn of the century, horse drawn combines were starting to be used on the American plains. In 1911, the Holt Manufacturing Company of California produced a self-propelled harvester, in Australia in 1923, the patented Sunshine Auto Header was one of the first center-feeding self-propelled harvesters. In 1923 in Kansas, the Baldwin brothers and their Gleaner Manufacturing Company patented a self-propelled harvester that included several other improvements in grain handling. Both the Gleaner and the Sunshine used Fordson engines, early Gleaners used the entire Fordson chassis, in 1929 Alfredo Rotania of Argentina patented a self-propelled harvester. International Harvester started making horse-pulled combines in 1915, at the time horse powered binders and stand alone threshing machines were more common. In the 1920s Case Corporation and John Deere made combines and these were starting to be pulled with a second engine aboard the combine to power its workings. The world economic collapse in the 1930s stopped farm equipment purchases thus people largely retained the older method of harvesting, a few farms did invest and used Caterpillar tractors to move the outfits. Tractor-drawn combines became common after World War II as many began to use tractors. An example was the All-Crop Harvester series and these combines used a shaker to separate the grain from the chaff and straw-walkers to eject the straw while retaining the grain
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Hobby farm
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A hobby farm is a smallholding or small farm that is maintained without expectation of being a primary source of income. Some are merely to provide some land, and perhaps a few horses for the familys children. In the UK, country living is becoming a rather than an occupation. The number of farms in England with “no economic output” in recent surveys jumped in one year from 90,000 to 115,000, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors says that nearly half of all farms sold in a recent year were bought by non-farmers. This was said to be “consistent with the new trend of buying houses in the country with 20-60 acres of land -- more than a garden, not quite a fully-fledged farm. ”A house with a garden can be a mini-hobby farm, with vegetables, poultry, rabbits. Willy Newlands, author of Hobby Farm, says, “Hobby agriculture covers a wide spectrum, the nouveau farmer is, above all, enjoying himself. ”In the U. S. a high proportion of farms might be classed as hobby farms. In 2007, over 40% of farms reported less than $2500 in income, in the US, as farms grow in size, older farms become less economically viable. Some are purchased and most of the land combined with nearby farms. These can be sold off with only a lot of real estate. These are usually snapped up quickly by people with well-paying city jobs who wish to live in the country, or to retirees, who wish to be active as part-time farmers. Some, especially in developed areas, are used as gardens, with their own produce stands. Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, dimitri, Carolyn, Effland, Anne, Conklin, Neilson. The 20th Century Transformation of U. S. Agriculture and Farm Policy
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Corporate farming
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CropLife International is an international trade association of agrobusiness companies founded in 2001. It was previously known as Global Crop Protection Federation and started out as International Group of National Associations of Manufacturers of Agrochemical Products in 1967 and its members include the worlds largest agricultural biotechnology and agricultural pesticide businesses namely BASF, Bayer CropScience, Dow AgroSciences, DuPont, FMC Corp. In 1967, the International Group of National Associations of Manufacturers of Agrochemical Products was founded, in November 1996, GIFAP was renamed to Global Crop Protection Federation. On 7 November 2001, GCPF was renamed to CropLife International, as of 2015 CropLife International´s member list includes the following 8 companies, BASF, Bayer CropScience, Dow AgroSciences, DuPont, FMC Corp. As of 2015 CropLife International is a global network operating in all 5 global regions, the network divides itself into the two fields of plant biotechnology and crop protection, i. e. pesticides. The pesticide associations include 11 regional CropLife associations and the European Crop Protection Association, Israel Crop Protection Association and Japan Crop Protection Association
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History of agriculture in the United States
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The history of agriculture in the United States covers the period from the first English settlers to the present day. In Colonial America, agriculture was the livelihood for 90% of the population. Most farms were geared toward subsistence production for family use, the rapid growth of population and the expansion of the frontier opened up large numbers of new farms, and clearing the land was a major preoccupation of farmers. After 1800, cotton became the crop in southern plantations. After 1840, industrialization and urbanization opened up lucrative domestic markets. The number of farms grew from 1.4 million in 1850, to 4.0 million in 1880, prior to the arrival of Europeans in North America, the continent supported a diverse range of indigenous cultures. While some populations were primarily Hunter-gatherers, other populations relied on agriculture, Native Americans farmed domesticated crops in the Eastern Woodlands and American Southwest. The first settlers in Plymouth Colony planted barley and peas from England, to fertilize this crop, they used small fish which they called herrings or shads. Plantation agriculture, using slaves, developed in Virginia and Maryland, Cotton became a major plantation crop after 1800 in the Black Belt, that is the region from North Carolina in an arc through Texas where the climate allowed for cotton cultivation. The Black Belt was originally named after the soil. Apart from the tobacco and rice plantations, the majority of farms were subsistence, producing food for the family and some for trade. Subsistence farming was pervasive throughout the 13 colonies, Farmers supplemented their income with sales of surplus crops or animals in the local market, or by exports to the slave colonies in the West Indies. Lumbering hunting and fishing supplemented the family economy, ethnicity made a difference in agricultural practice. German Americans brought with them practices and traditions that were different from those of the English. They adapted Old World techniques to a more abundant land supply. Furthermore, the Germans showed a tendency to keep the farm in the family. For example, they generally preferred oxen to horses for plowing, the Scots Irish built their livelihoods on some farming but more herding. In the American colonies, the Scots-Irish focused on mixed farming, using this technique, they grew corn for human consumption and for livestock feed, especially for hogs
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Cotton
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Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus Gossypium in the family of Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, under natural conditions, the cotton bolls will tend to increase the dispersal of the seeds. The plant is a native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, Africa. The greatest diversity of wild species is found in Mexico, followed by Australia. Cotton was independently domesticated in the Old and New Worlds, the fiber is most often spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft, breathable textile. Current estimates for world production are about 25 million tonnes or 110 million bales annually, China is the worlds largest producer of cotton, but most of this is used domestically. The United States has been the largest exporter for many years, in the United States, cotton is usually measured in bales, which measure approximately 0.48 cubic meters and weigh 226.8 kilograms. Cotton cultivation in the region is dated to the Indus Valley Civilization, the Indus cotton industry was well-developed and some methods used in cotton spinning and fabrication continued to be used until the industrialization of India. Between 2000 and 1000 BC cotton became widespread across much of India, for example, it has been found at the site of Hallus in Karnataka dating from around 1000 BC. Cotton fabrics discovered in a cave near Tehuacán, Mexico have been dated to around 5800 BC, the domestication of Gossypium hirsutum in Mexico is dated between 3400 and 2300 BC. Cotton was grown upriver, made into nets, and traded with fishing villages along the coast for supplies of fish. The Spanish who came to Mexico and Peru in the early 16th century found the people growing cotton and this may be a reference to tree cotton, Gossypium arboreum, which is a native of the Indian subcontinent. According to the Columbia Encyclopedia, Cotton has been spun, woven and it clothed the people of ancient India, Egypt, and China. Hundreds of years before the Christian era, cotton textiles were woven in India with matchless skill, in Iran, the history of cotton dates back to the Achaemenid era, however, there are few sources about the planting of cotton in pre-Islamic Iran. The planting of cotton was common in Merv, Ray and Pars of Iran, in Persian poets poems, especially Ferdowsis Shahname, there are references to cotton. Marco Polo refers to the products of Persia, including cotton. John Chardin, a French traveler of the 17th century who visited the Safavid Persia, during the Han dynasty, cotton was grown by Chinese peoples in the southern Chinese province of Yunnan. Mohamed Ali Pasha accepted the proposition and granted himself the monopoly on the sale and export of cotton in Egypt, and later dictated cotton should be grown in preference to other crops
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Plantations in the American South
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A plantation is an area of land or water where one crop is specifically planted for widespread commercial sale. The crops grown include cotton, coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar cane, sisal, oil seeds, oil palms, rubber trees, protectionist policies and natural comparative advantage have sometimes contributed to determining where plantations were located. Among the earliest examples of plantations were the latifundia of the Roman Empire, Plantation agriculture grew rapidly with the increase in international trade and the development of a worldwide economy that followed the expansion of European colonial empires. Like every economic activity, it has changed over time, Industrial plantations are established to produce a high volume of wood in a short period of time. Plantations are grown by state forestry authorities and/or the paper and wood industries, christmas trees are often grown on plantations as well. In southern and southeastern Asia, teak plantations have replaced the natural forest. Industrial plantations are managed for the commercial production of forest products. Individual blocks are usually even-aged and often consist of just one or two species and these species can be exotic or indigenous. Forest genetic resources are the basis for genetic alteration, selected individuals grown in seed orchards are a good source for seeds to develop adequate planting material. Wood production on a plantation is generally higher than that of natural forests. In 2000, while plantations accounted for 5% of global forest, in the first year, the ground is prepared usually by the combination of burning, herbicide spraying, and/or cultivation and then saplings are planted by human crew or by machine. The saplings are usually obtained in bulk from industrial nurseries, which may specialize in breeding in order to produce fast growing disease-. In the first few years until the canopy closes, the saplings are looked after, after the canopy closes, with the tree crowns touching each other, the plantation is becoming dense and crowded, and tree growth is slowing due to competition. This stage is termed pole stage, when competition becomes too intense, it is time to thin out the section. There are several methods for thinning, but where topography permits, the most popular is row-thinning, many trees are removed, leaving regular clear lanes through the section so that the remaining trees have room to expand again. The removed trees are delimbed, forwarded to the forest road, loaded onto trucks, a typical pole stage plantation tree is 7–30 cm in diameter at breast height. Such trees are not suitable for timber, but are used as pulp for paper and particleboard. As the trees grow and become dense and crowded again, the process is repeated
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Maize
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Maize, also known as corn, is a large grain plant first domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The six major types of corn are dent corn, flint corn, pod corn, popcorn, flour corn, the leafy stalk of the plant produces separate pollen and ovuliferous inflorescences or ears, which are fruits, yielding kernels or seeds. Maize kernels are used in cooking as a starch. Most historians believe maize was domesticated in the Tehuacan Valley of Mexico, recent research modified this view somewhat, scholars now indicate the adjacent Balsas River Valley of south-central Mexico as the center of domestication. The Olmec and Mayans cultivated maize in numerous varieties throughout Mesoamerica, cooked and its believed that beginning about 2500 BC, the crop spread through much of the Americas. The region developed a network based on surplus and varieties of maize crops. Nevertheless, recent data indicates that the spread of maize took place even earlier, according to Piperno, A large corpus of data indicates that it was dispersed into lower Central America by 7600 BP and had moved into the inter-Andean valleys of Colombia between 7000 and 6000 BP. Since then, even earlier dates have been published, the study also demonstrated that the oldest surviving maize types are those of the Mexican highlands. Later, maize spread from this region over the Americas along two major paths and this is consistent with a model based on the archaeological record suggesting that maize diversified in the highlands of Mexico before spreading to the lowlands. Before they were domesticated, maize plants only grew small,25 millimetres long corn cobs, Maize is the most widely grown grain crop throughout the Americas, with 361 million metric tons grown in the United States in 2014. Approximately 40% of the crop—130 million tons—is used for corn ethanol, genetically modified maize made up 85% of the maize planted in the United States in 2009. After the arrival of Europeans in 1492, Spanish settlers consumed maize and explorers and traders carried it back to Europe, Spanish settlers far preferred wheat bread to maize, cassava, or potatoes. Maize flour could not be substituted for wheat for bread, since in Christian belief only wheat could undergo transubstantiation. At another level, Spaniards worried that by eating indigenous foods, which they did not consider nutritious, that not only would they weaken, despite these worries, Spaniards did consume maize and archeological evidence from Florida sites indicate they cultivated it as well. Maize spread to the rest of the world because of its ability to grow in diverse climates and it was cultivated in Spain just a few decades after Columbuss voyages and then spread to Italy, West Africa and elsewhere. The word maize derives from the Spanish form of the indigenous Taíno word for the plant and it is known by other names around the world. The word corn outside North America, Australia, and New Zealand refers to any cereal crop, in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, corn primarily means maize, this usage started as a shortening of Indian corn. Indian corn primarily means maize, but can more specifically to multicolored flint corn used for decoration
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Sunflower seed
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The sunflower seed is the fruit of the sunflower. The term sunflower seed is actually a misnomer when applied to the seed in its pericarp, botanically speaking, it is a cypsela. When dehulled, the remainder is called the sunflower kernel or heart. There are three types of commonly used sunflower seeds, linoleic, high oleic, and NuSun, each variety has its own unique levels of monounsaturated, saturated, and polyunsaturated fats. The information in this article refers mainly to the linoleic variety, for commercial purposes, sunflower seeds are usually classified by the pattern on their husks. If the husk is solid black, the seeds are called black oil sunflower seeds, the crops may be referred to as oilseed sunflower crops. These seeds are pressed to extract their oil. Striped sunflower seeds are used for food, as a result. In 2013, world production of seeds was 44.5 million tonnes, with Ukraine. Sunflower seeds are commonly eaten as a snack than as part of a meal. They can also be used as garnishes or ingredients in various recipes, the seeds may be sold as in-shell seeds or dehulled kernels. The seeds can also be sprouted and eaten in salads, when in-shell seeds are processed, they are first dried. Afterwards, they may also be roasted or dusted with salt or flour for preservation of flavor. Sunflower seeds sold by the bag are either plain or with a variety of flavorings added by the maker including barbecue, pickle, hot sauce, bacon, ranch. In the United States, they are eaten by baseball players as an alternative to chewing tobacco. Mechanically dehulled kernels may be sold raw or roasted and are added to bread. There is also sunflower butter, similar to butter, but using sunflower seeds instead of peanuts. Apart from human consumption, sunflower seeds are used as food for pets and wild birds in boxes
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New England
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New England is a geographical region comprising six states of the northeast United States, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and south, the Atlantic Ocean is to the east and southeast, and Long Island Sound is to the south. Its largest metropolitan area is Greater Boston, which also includes Worcester, Manchester, ten years later, more Puritans settled north of Plymouth Colony in Boston, thus forming Massachusetts Bay Colony. Over the next 126 years, people in the region fought in four French and Indian Wars, until the British and their Iroquois allies defeated the French and their Algonquin allies in North America. In 1692, the town of Salem, Massachusetts and surrounding areas experienced one of the most infamous cases of hysteria in the history of the Western Hemisphere. The Boston Tea Party was a protest to which Britain responded with a series of punitive laws stripping Massachusetts of self-government, the confrontation led to the first battles of the American Revolutionary War in 1775, and the expulsion of the British authorities from the region in spring 1776. Each state is subdivided into small incorporated municipalities known as towns. The only unincorporated areas in the region exist in the populated northern regions of Vermont, New Hampshire. The region is one of the U. S. Census Bureaus nine regional divisions, the earliest known inhabitants of New England were American Indians who spoke a variety of the Eastern Algonquian languages. Prominent tribes included the Abenaki, Mikmaq, Penobscot, Pequot, Mohegans, Narragansett Indians, Pocumtuck, prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Western Abenakis inhabited New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont, as well as parts of Quebec and western Maine. Their principal town was Norridgewock in present-day Maine, the Penobscot lived along the Penobscot River in Maine. The Narragansett and smaller tribes under Narragansett sovereignty lived in most of modern-day Rhode Island, west of Narragansett Bay, the Wampanoag occupied southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and the islands of Marthas Vineyard and Nantucket. The Pocumtucks lived in Western Massachusetts, and the Mohegan and Pequot tribes in the Connecticut region, the Connecticut River Valley includes parts of Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, and linked different indigenous communities culturally, linguistically, and politically. As early as 1600, French, Dutch, and English traders began exploring the New World, trading metal, glass, on April 10,1606, King James I of England issued a charter for each of the Virginia Companies, London and Plymouth. These were privately funded ventures, intended to land for England, conduct trade. In 1620, Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts was settled by Pilgrims from the Mayflower, in 1616, English explorer John Smith named the region New England. As the first colonists arrived in Plymouth, they wrote and signed the Mayflower Compact, the Massachusetts Bay Colony came to dominate the area and was established by royal charter in 1629 with its major town and port of Boston established in 1630. Massachusetts Puritans began to settle in Connecticut as early as 1633, roger Williams was banished from Massachusetts for heresy, led a group south, and founded Providence Plantation in the area that became the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in 1636
29.
Soil retrogression and degradation
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Soil retrogression and degradation are two regressive evolution processes associated with the loss of equilibrium of a stable soil. Retrogression is primarily due to erosion and corresponds to a phenomenon where succession reverts the land to its natural physical state. Degradation is an evolution, different from natural evolution, related to the local climate and it is due to the replacement of primary plant communities by the secondary communities. This replacement modifies the humus composition and amount, and affects the formation of the soil and it is directly related to human activity. Soil degradation may also be viewed as any change or ecological disturbance to the soil perceived to be deleterious or undesirable, at the beginning of soil formation, the bare rock out crops is gradually colonized by pioneer species. They are succeeded by herbaceous vegetation, shrubs and finally forest, in parallel, the first humus-bearing horizon is formed, followed by some mineral horizons. Each successive stage is characterized by an association of soil/vegetation and environment. After a certain time of parallel evolution between the ground and the vegetation, a state of balance is reached. This stage of development is called climax by some ecologists and natural potential by others, succession is the evolution towards climax. Regardless of its name, the stage of primary succession is the highest natural form of development that the environmental factors are capable of producing. The cycles of evolution of soils have very variable durations, between tens, hundreds, or thousands of years for quickly evolving soils to more than a million years for slowly developing soils. The same soil may achieve several successive steady state conditions during its existence, as exhibited by the Pygmy forest sequence in Mendocino County, soils naturally reach a state of high productivity, from which they naturally degrade as mineral nutrients are removed from the soil system. Thus older soils are vulnerable to the effects of induced retrogression and degradation. There are two types of factors influencing the evolution of a soil. These two factors are significant to explain the evolution of soils of short development. A first type of factor is the climate of an area. A second type of factor is more local, and is related to the original rock and this type of factor explains appearance of specialized associations. The destruction of the vegetation implies the destruction of evoluted soils, cycles of succession-regression of soils follow one another within short intervals of time or long intervals of time
30.
Soil fertility
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In lands used for agriculture and other human activities, maintenance of soil fertility typically requires the use of soil conservation practices. This is because soil erosion and other forms of soil degradation generally result in a decline in quality with respect to one or more of the aspects indicated above, bioavailable phosphorus is the element in soil that is most often lacking. Nitrogen and potassium are also needed in substantial amounts, for this reason these three elements are always identified on a commercial fertilizer analysis. For example, a 10-10-15 fertilizer has 10 percent nitrogen,10 percent available phosphorus and 15 percent water-soluble potassium, sulfur is the fourth element that may be identified in a commercial analysis—e. g. 21-0-0-24 which would contain 21% nitrogen and 24% sulfate, inorganic fertilizers are generally less expensive and have higher concentrations of nutrients than organic fertilizers. However, some have criticized the use of fertilizers, claiming that the water-soluble nitrogen doesnt provide for the long-term needs of the plant. Slow-release fertilizers may reduce leaching loss of nutrients and may make the nutrients that they provide available over a period of time. Soil fertility is a process that involves the constant cycling of nutrients between organic and inorganic forms. As plant material and animal wastes are decomposed by micro-organisms, they release inorganic nutrients to the soil solution and those nutrients may then undergo further transformations which may be aided or enabled by soil micro-organisms. The balance between immobilization and mineralization processes depends on the balance and availability of nutrients and organic carbon to soil microorganisms. Natural processes such as lightning strikes may fix atmospheric nitrogen by converting it to, denitrification may occur under anaerobic conditions in the presence of denitrifying bacteria. Nutrient cations, including potassium and many micronutrients, are held in strong bonds with the negatively charged portions of the soil in a process known as cation exchange. In 2008 the cost of phosphorus as fertilizer more than doubled, recently the term peak phosphorus has been coined, due to the limited occurrence of rock phosphate in the world. Photosynthesis is the process whereby plants use light energy to chemical reactions which convert CO2 into sugars. As such, all plants require access to light and carbon dioxide to produce energy, grow and reproduce. While typically limited by nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, low levels of carbon dioxide can act as a limiting factor on plant growth. Peer-reviewed and published studies have shown that increasing CO2 is highly effective at promoting plant growth up to levels over 300 ppm. Further increases in CO2 can, to a small degree
31.
Midwest
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It was officially named the North Central region by the Census Bureau until 1984. Illinois is the most populous of the states and North Dakota the least, a 2012 report from the United States Census put the population of the Midwest at 65,377,684. The Midwest is divided by the Census Bureau into two divisions, the East North Central Division includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, all of which are also part of the Great Lakes region. Major rivers in the include, from east to west, the Ohio River, the Upper Mississippi River. Chicago is the most populated city in the American Midwest and the third most populous in the entire country, other large Midwest cities include, Indianapolis, Columbus, Detroit, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Omaha, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Wichita and St. Louis. Chicago and its suburbs form the largest metropolitan area with 9.8 million people, followed by Metro Detroit. Paul, Greater St. Louis, Greater Cleveland, Greater Cincinnati, Kansas City metro area, the term Midwestern has been in use since the 1880s to refer to portions of the central United States. A variant term, Middle West, has used since the 19th century. Another term sometimes applied to the general region is the heartland. Other designations for the region have fallen out of use, such as the Northwest or Old Northwest, the Northwest Territory was one of the earliest territories of the United States, stretching northwest from the Ohio River to northern Minnesota and upper-Mississippi. The upper-Mississippi watershed including the Missouri and Illinois Rivers was the setting for the earlier French settlements of the Illinois Country, economically the region is balanced between heavy industry and agriculture, with finance and services such as medicine and education becoming increasingly important. Its central location makes it a crossroads for river boats, railroads, autos, trucks. Politically the region swings back and forth between the parties, and thus is heavily contested and often decisive in elections, after the sociological study Middletown, which was based on Muncie, Indiana, commentators used Midwestern cities as typical of the nation. The region has a higher ratio than the Northeast, the West. Traditional definitions of the Midwest include the Northwest Ordinance Old Northwest states, the states of the Old Northwest are also known as Great Lakes states and are east-north central in the United States. The Ohio River runs along the section while the Mississippi River runs north to south near the center. Many of the Louisiana Purchase states in the west-north central United States, are known as Great Plains states. The Midwest lies north of the 36°30′ parallel that the 1820 Missouri Compromise established as the line between future slave and non-slave states
32.
Domestic pig
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The domestic pig, often called swine, hog, or pig when there is no need to distinguish it from other pigs, is a large, even-toed ungulate. It is variously considered a subspecies of the boar or a distinct species. The domestic pigs head-plus-body-length ranges from 0.9 to 1.8 m, compared to other artiodactyls, its head is relatively long, pointed, and free of warts. Even-toed ungulates are generally herbivorous, but the pig is an omnivore. Domestic pigs are farmed primarily for the consumption of their meat called pork, the animals bones, hide, and bristles are also used in commercial products. Domestic pigs, especially the pig and micro pig, are sometimes kept as pets. The domestic pig typically has a head, with a long snout which is strengthened by a special prenasal bone. The snout is used to dig into the soil to find food, the dental formula of adult pigs is 3.1.4.33.1.4.3, giving a total of 44 teeth. The rear teeth are adapted for crushing, in the male the canine teeth can form tusks, which grow continuously and are sharpened by constantly being ground against each other. There are four hoofed toes on each foot, or trotter, most domestic pigs have rather a sparse hair covering on their skin, although woolly-coated breeds, such as the Mangalitsa, are raised. Pigs possess both apocrine and eccrine sweat glands, although the latter appear limited to the snout and dorsonasal areas, pigs, however, like other hairless mammals, do not use thermal sweat glands in cooling. Pigs are also less able than many other mammals to dissipate heat from wet mucous membranes in the mouth through panting and their thermoneutral zone is 16 to 22 °C. Pigs are one of four known species which possess mutations in the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor that protect against snake venom. Mongooses, honey badgers, hedgehogs, and pigs all have modifications to the receptor pocket which prevents the snake venom α-neurotoxin from binding and these represent four separate, independent mutations. However, in 1777, Johann Christian Polycarp Erxleben classified the domestic pig as a species from the wild boar. He gave it the name Sus domesticus, which is used by some taxonomists. Remains of pigs have been dated to earlier than 11,400 BC in Cyprus and those animals must have been introduced from the mainland, which suggests domestication in the adjacent mainland by then. There was also a separate domestication in China which took place about 8000 years ago, DNA evidence from sub-fossil remains of teeth and jawbones of Neolithic pigs shows that the first domestic pigs in Europe had been brought from the Near East
33.
Dairy cattle
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Dairy cattle are cattle cows bred for the ability to produce large quantities of milk, from which dairy products are made. Dairy cows generally are of the species Bos taurus, historically, there was little distinction between dairy cattle and beef cattle, with the same stock often being used for both meat and milk production. Today, the industry is more specialized and most dairy cattle have been bred to produce large volumes of milk. Dairy cows may be either in herds or dairy farms where dairy farmers own, manage, care for. Herd sizes vary around the world depending on landholding culture and social structure, the United States has 9 million cows in 75,000 dairy herds, with an average herd size of 120 cows. The number of herds is falling rapidly with the 3,100 herds with over 500 cows producing 51% of U. S. milk in 2007. The United Kingdom dairy herd overall has nearly 1.5 million cows, in New Zealand, the average herd has more than 375 cows, while in Australia, there are approximately 220 cows in the average herd. To maintain lactation, a dairy cow must be bred and produce calves, depending on market conditions, the cow may be bred with a dairy bull or a beef bull. Female calves with dairy breeding may be kept as replacement cows for the dairy herd, if a replacement cow turns out to be a substandard producer of milk, she then goes to market and can be slaughtered for beef. Male calves can either be used later as a bull or sold. Dairy farmers usually begin breeding or artificially inseminating heifers around 13 months of age, a cows gestation period is approximately nine months. Newborn calves are removed from their mothers quickly, usually three days, as the mother/calf bond intensifies over time and delayed separation can cause extreme stress on both cow and calf. Domestic cows can live to 20 years, however, those raised for dairy rarely live long, as the average cow is removed from the dairy herd around age four. In 2014, approximately 9. 5% of the slaughtered in the U. S. were culled dairy cows, cows that can no longer be seen as an economic asset to the dairy farm. These animals may be due to reproductive problems or common diseases of milk cows such as mastitis. Market calves are sold at two weeks of age and bull calves may fetch a premium over heifers due to their size. Calves may be sold for veal, or for one of several types of production, depending on available local crops. Such bull calves may be castrated if turnout onto pastures is envisaged, Purebred bulls from elite cows may be put into progeny testing schemes to find out whether they might become superior sires for breeding
34.
Beef cattle
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Beef cattle are cattle raised for meat production. The meat of cattle is known as beef. In beef production there are three stages, cow-calf operations, backgrounding, and feedlot operations. When raised in a feedlot, cattle are known as feeder cattle, many such feeder cattle are born in cow-calf operations specifically designed to produce beef calves. While the principal use of cattle is meat production, other uses include leather. See also List of breeds of cattle Besides breeding to meet the demand for beef production, an example of a desired trait could be leaner meat or resistance to illness. Breeds known as dual-purpose breeds are used for beef production. These breeds have been selected for two purposes at once, such as for beef and dairy production, or both beef and draught. Dual-purpose breeds include the Brown Swiss and many of the Zebu breeds of India such as Tharparkar, the original Shorthorn was also a dual-purpose breed, but it diverged into two groups through selective breeding. Most beef cattle are mated naturally, whereby a bull is released into an approximately six weeks after calving period. However, beef cattle can also be bred through artificial insemination, Cattle are normally bred during the summer so that calving may occur the following spring. However, cattle breeding can occur at times of year. Owners can select the time based on a number of factors, including reproductive performance. Cattle handlers are expected to maintain a low stress environment for their herds, involving constant safety, health, comfort, nourishment and humane handling. According to the Canadian National Farm Animal Care Council, beef cattle must have access to shelter from weather, safe handling and equipment, veterinary care. If an animal is infected or suspected to have an illness, due to the density of herd populations, illnesses can spread very quickly between cattle. Owners are expected to monitor their cattles condition regularly for early detection and treatment, on average, cattle will consume 1.4 to 4% of their body weight daily. Cattle weighing 1000 lbs. will drink an average of 41 L a day, a steer that weighs 1,000 lb when alive will make a carcass weighing about 615 lb, once the blood, head, feet, skin, offal and guts have been removed
35.
Tobacco
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Tobacco is a product prepared from the leaves of the tobacco plant by curing them. The plant is part of the genus Nicotiana and of the Solanaceae family, while more than 70 species of tobacco are known, the chief commercial crop is N. tabacum. The more potent variant N. rustica is also used around the world, Tobacco contains the alkaloid nicotine, which is a stimulant. Dried tobacco leaves are used for smoking in cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco. They can be consumed as snuff, chewing tobacco, dipping tobacco. Tobacco use is a factor for many diseases, especially those affecting the heart, liver. In 2008, the World Health Organization named tobacco as the single greatest preventable cause of death. The English word tobacco originates from the Spanish and Portuguese word tabaco, the precise origin of this word is disputed, but it is generally thought to have derived at least in part, from Taino, the Arawakan language of the Caribbean. In Taino, it was said to either a roll of tobacco leaves or to tabago. Tobacco has long used in the Americas, with some cultivation sites in Mexico dating back to 1400–1000 BC. Many Native American tribes have traditionally grown and used tobacco, traditionally, tobacco is seen as a gift from the Creator, with the ceremonial tobacco smoke carrying ones thoughts and prayers to the Creator. Following the arrival of the Europeans to the Americas, tobacco became popular as a trade item. Hernández de Boncalo, Spanish chronicler of the Indies, was the first European to bring seeds to the Old World in 1559 following orders of King Philip II of Spain. These seeds were planted in the outskirts of Toledo, more specifically in a known as Los Cigarrales named after the continuous plagues of cicadas. Before the development of lighter Virginia and white burley strains of tobacco, small quantities were smoked at a time, using a pipe like the midwakh or kiseru or smoking newly invented waterpipes such as the bong or the hookah. The alleged benefits of tobacco also account for its considerable success, Tobacco smoking, chewing, and snuffing became a major industry in Europe and its colonies by 1700. Tobacco has been a major crop in Cuba and in other parts of the Caribbean since the 18th century. In the late 19th century, cigarettes became popular, James Bonsack created a machine that automated cigarette production
36.
American Civil War
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The American Civil War was an internal conflict fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. The Union faced secessionists in eleven Southern states grouped together as the Confederate States of America, the Union won the war, which remains the bloodiest in U. S. history. Among the 34 U. S. states in February 1861, War broke out in April 1861 when Confederates attacked the U. S. fortress of Fort Sumter. The Confederacy grew to eleven states, it claimed two more states, the Indian Territory, and the southern portions of the western territories of Arizona. The Confederacy was never recognized by the United States government nor by any foreign country. The states that remained loyal, including border states where slavery was legal, were known as the Union or the North, the war ended with the surrender of all the Confederate armies and the dissolution of the Confederate government in the spring of 1865. The war had its origin in the issue of slavery. The Confederacy collapsed and 4 million slaves were freed, but before his inauguration, seven slave states with cotton-based economies formed the Confederacy. The first six to declare secession had the highest proportions of slaves in their populations, the first seven with state legislatures to resolve for secession included split majorities for unionists Douglas and Bell in Georgia with 51% and Louisiana with 55%. Alabama had voted 46% for those unionists, Mississippi with 40%, Florida with 38%, Texas with 25%, of these, only Texas held a referendum on secession. Eight remaining slave states continued to reject calls for secession, outgoing Democratic President James Buchanan and the incoming Republicans rejected secession as illegal. Lincolns March 4,1861 inaugural address declared that his administration would not initiate a civil war, speaking directly to the Southern States, he reaffirmed, I have no purpose, directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the United States where it exists. I believe I have no right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. After Confederate forces seized numerous federal forts within territory claimed by the Confederacy, efforts at compromise failed, the Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on King Cotton that they would intervene, but none did, and none recognized the new Confederate States of America. Hostilities began on April 12,1861, when Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, while in the Western Theater the Union made significant permanent gains, in the Eastern Theater, the battle was inconclusive in 1861–62. The autumn 1862 Confederate campaigns into Maryland and Kentucky failed, dissuading British intervention, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which made ending slavery a war goal. To the west, by summer 1862 the Union destroyed the Confederate river navy, then much of their western armies, the 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River. In 1863, Robert E. Lees Confederate incursion north ended at the Battle of Gettysburg, Western successes led to Ulysses S. Grants command of all Union armies in 1864
37.
Northwest Ordinance
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The Northwest Ordinance was an act of the Congress of the Confederation of the United States, passed July 13,1787. The upper Mississippi River formed the Territorys western boundary and it was based upon but more conservative than Thomas Jeffersons proposed ordinance of 1784. The 1787 law relied on a central government, which was assured under the new Constitution that took effect in 1789. In August 1789, it was replaced by the Northwest Ordinance of 1789 and it was also precedent setting legislation with regard to American public domain lands. This division helped set the stage for competition over admitting free and slave states. The territory was acquired by Great Britain from France following victory in the Seven Years War, Great Britain took over the Ohio Country, as its eastern portion was known, but a few months later closed it to new European settlement by the Royal Proclamation of 1763. The Crown tried to restrict settlement of the thirteen colonies between the Appalachians and the Atlantic, which raised tensions among those who wanted to move west. With the colonials victory in the American Revolutionary War and signing of the 1783 Treaty of Paris, the territories were subject to overlapping and conflicting claims of the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and Virginia dating from their colonial past. The British were active in some of the area until after the Louisiana Purchase. The region had long been desired for expansion by colonists, the states were encouraged to settle their claims by the US governments de facto opening of the area to settlement following the defeat of Great Britain. Jeffersons proposal to create a domain through state cessions of western lands was derived from earlier proposals dating back to 1776. The Congress of the Confederation modified the proposal, passing it as the Land Ordinance of 1784 and this ordinance established the example that would become the basis for the Northwest Ordinance three years later. The 1784 ordinance was criticized by George Washington in 1785 and James Monroe in 1786, Monroe convinced Congress to reconsider the proposed state boundaries, a review committee recommended repealing that part of the ordinance. Other events such as the reluctance of states south of the Ohio River to cede their western claims resulted in a narrowed geographic focus, when passed in New York in 1787, the Northwest Ordinance showed the influence of Jefferson. It called for dividing the territory into gridded townships, so once the lands were surveyed, they could be sold to individuals. This would provide both a new source of government revenue and an orderly pattern for future settlement. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 established the concept of fee simple ownership and this was called the first guarantee of freedom of contract in the United States. These territories were to be administered directly by Congress, with the intent of their admission as newly created states
38.
Morrill Land-Grant Acts
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The Morrill Land-Grant Acts are United States statutes that allowed for the creation of land-grant colleges in U. S. states using the proceeds of federal land sales. The Morrill Act of 1862 was enacted during the American Civil War, for 20 years prior to the first introduction of the bill in 1857, there was a political movement calling for the creation of agriculture colleges. The movement was led by Professor Jonathan Baldwin Turner of Illinois College, for example, the Michigan Constitution of 1850 called for the creation of an agricultural school, though it was not until February 12,1855, that Michigan Governor Kinsley S. Unlike the Turner Plan, which provided a grant to each state. This was more advantageous to the populous eastern states. The Morrill Act was first proposed in 1857, and was passed by Congress in 1859, in 1861, Morrill resubmitted the act with the amendment that the proposed institutions would teach military tactics as well as engineering and agriculture. Aided by the secession of states that did not support the plans. The previous day Lincoln signed a bill financing the railroad with land grants. Less than two months earlier he signed the Homestead Act encouraging western settlement, together these actions, taken at a time when the Union Army was poorly performing, did much to define post-Civil War America. Under the act, each state received a total of 30,000 acres of federal land, either within or contiguous to its boundaries. This land, or the proceeds from its sale, was to be used toward establishing and funding the educational institutions described above. After the war, however, the 1862 Act was extended to the former Confederate states, it was extended to every state and territory. 8 On September 11,1862, the state of Iowa was the first to accept the terms of the Morrill Act which provided the funding boost needed for the fledgling State Agricultural College and Model Farm. The first land-grant institution actually created under the Act was Kansas State University, which was established on February 16,1863, before the Civil War American engineers were mostly educated at West Point. While the Congressional debate associated with the Morrill Act was largely focused on benefits to agriculture, after the Civil War, as the German University model began to replace the English College, with the encouragement of the Morrill Act the engineering discipline was gradually defined. Because the Morrill Act excluded spending on buildings, engineering specific infrastructure such as textbooks, in 1866 there were around 300 American men with engineering degrees and six reputable colleges granting them. By 1911 the United States was graduating 3000 engineers a year, the Morrill Act coincided with the establishment of engineering in the American university. With a few exceptions, nearly all of the Land-Grant Colleges are public, to maintain their status as land-grant colleges, a number of programs are required to be maintained by the college
39.
Hatch Act of 1887
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The bill was named for Congressman William Hatch, who chaired the House Committee of Agriculture at the time the bill was introduced. State agricultural stations created under this act were usually connected with those land-grant state colleges and universities founded under the Morrill Act of 1862, many stations founded under the Hatch Act later became the foundations for state cooperative extension services under the Smith-Lever Act of 1914. Congress amended the act in 1955 to add a formula that uses rural, under the 2002 farm bill, states will continue to be required to provide at least 100% matching funds. On average, Hatch Act formula funds constitute 10% of total funding for each experiment station
40.
Land-grant university
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A land-grant university is an institution of higher education in the United States designated by a state to receive the benefits of the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890. The Morrill Acts funded educational institutions by granting federally controlled land to the states for them to sell, to funds, to establish. This mission was in contrast to the practice of higher education to focus on an abstract liberal arts curriculum. Ultimately, most land-grant colleges became large public universities that offer a full spectrum of educational opportunities. However, some land-grant colleges are schools, including Cornell University. The concept of publicly funded agricultural and technical educational institutions first rose to attention through the efforts of Jonathan Baldwin Turner in the late 1840s. The first land-grant bill was introduced in Congress by Representative Justin Smith Morrill of Vermont in 1857, the bill passed in 1859, but was vetoed by President James Buchanan. Morrill resubmitted his bill in 1861, and it was enacted into law in 1862. Upon passage of the federal land-grant law in 1862, Iowa was the first state legislature to accept the provisions of the Morrill Act, Iowa subsequently designated the State Agricultural College as the land grant college on March 29,1864. The first land-grant institution actually created under the Act was Kansas State University, which was established on February 16,1863, the oldest school that currently holds land-grant status is Rutgers University, founded in 1766 and designated the land-grant college of New Jersey in 1864. The oldest school to ever hold land-grant status was Yale University and this designation was later stripped by the Connecticut legislature under populist pressure and transferred to what would become the University of Connecticut. A second Morrill Act was passed in 1890, aimed at the former Confederate states and this act required each state to show that race was not an admissions criterion, or else to designate a separate land-grant institution for persons of color. Among the seventy colleges and universities which eventually evolved from the Morrill Acts are several of historically black colleges and universities. In imitation of the land-grant colleges focus on agricultural and mechanical research, Congress later established programs of sea grant colleges, space grant colleges and it is also the smallest land-grant university in the country. The Farmers High School of Pennsylvania, later to become The Pennsylvania State University, michigan State and Penn State were subsequently designated as the federal land-grant colleges for their states in 1863. Older state universities – such as the University of Georgia, which was established with a grant of land in 1784 – were also funded through the use of land grants. Indeed, land grants to institutions are a practice inherited from Europe. These earlier examples, however, offered a different mission than the education offered by land-grant institutions established under the Morrill Act
41.
Agricultural extension
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Agricultural extension is the application of scientific research and new knowledge to agricultural practices through farmer education. Extension practitioners can be throughout the world, usually working for government agencies. They are represented by professional organizations, networks and extension journals. Modern extension began in Dublin, Ireland in 1847 with Lord Clarendons itinerant instructors during the great famine and it expanded in Germany in the 1850s, through the itinerant agricultural teachers Wanderlehrer and later in the USA via the cooperative extension system authorized by the Smith-Lever Act in 1914. The term was adopted in the United States of America. Another program area provided by extension agents is 4-H and youth activities, many extension agents work for cooperative extension service programs at land-grant universities. They are sometimes referred to as county agents, or extension educators, subjects range from agriculture, life sciences, economics, engineering, food safety, pest management, veterinary medicine, and various other allied disciplines. These subject matter specialists work with agents to support programs within the extension system. Extension is constantly evolving and the ability to share information online has prompted the development of new platforms like Digital Green. There is no accepted definition of agricultural extension. 1965, Agricultural extension has been described as a system of education for rural people. 1966, Extension personnel have the task of bringing knowledge to farm families in the farms. The object of the task is to improve the efficiency of agriculture,1974, Extension involves the conscious use of communication of information to help people form sound opinions and make good decisions. 1982, Agricultural Extension, Assistance to farmers to help identify and analyze their production problems. 1988, Extension is a professional communication intervention deployed by an institution to change in voluntary behaviors with a presumed public or collective utility. 1997, Extension is the exchange of information and the deliberate transfer of skills. 2004, Extension is a series of embedded communicative interventions that are meant, among other goals,2006, Extension is the process of enabling change in individuals, communities and industries involved in the primary industry sector and in natural resource management. It is not known where or when the first extension took place
42.
Soybean
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Glycine max, commonly known as soybean in North America or soya bean, is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean which has numerous uses. The plant, classed as a rather than a pulse by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Fat-free soybean meal is a significant and cheap source of protein for animal feeds, for example, soybean products, such as textured vegetable protein, are ingredients in many meat and dairy substitutes. The beans contain significant amounts of acid, dietary minerals. Soy vegetable oil, used in food and industrial applications, is product of processing the soybean crop. Traditional non-fermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk from which tofu and tofu skin are made, fermented soy foods include soy sauce, fermented bean paste, natto and tempeh. The main countries growing soybeans are the United States, Brazil, the English words soy and soya are ultimately derived from the Japanese pronunciation of shōyu, the Sino-Japanese word for soy sauce, by way of the Dutch adaptation of the same word, soja. The genus Glycine Willd. is divided two subgenera, Glycine and Soja. Includes the cultivated soybean, Glycine max Merr. and the wild soybean, Glycine soja is the wild ancestor of Glycine max, and grows wild in China, Japan, Korea and Russia. The subgenus Glycine consists of at least 25 wild perennial species, for example, Glycine canescens F. J. Herm. and G. tomentella Hayata, perennial soybean originated in Africa and is now a widespread pasture crop in the tropics. Like some other crops of long domestication, the relationship of the soybean to wild-growing species can no longer be traced with any degree of certainty. It is a variety with a very large number of cultivars. Like most plants, soybeans grow in distinct morphological stages as they develop from seeds into fully mature plants, the first stage of growth is germination, a process that first becomes apparent as a seeds radicle emerges. This is the first stage of growth and occurs within the first 48 hours under ideal growing conditions. The first photosynthetic structures, the cotyledons, develop from the hypocotyl and these cotyledons both act as leaves and as a source of nutrients for the immature plant, providing the seedling nutrition for its first 7 to 10 days. The first true leaves develop as a pair of single blades, subsequent to this first pair, mature nodes form compound leaves with three blades. Mature trifoliolate leaves, having three to four leaflets per leaf, are often between 6–15 cm long and 2–7 cm broad, under ideal conditions, stem growth continues, producing new nodes every four days. Before flowering, roots can grow 1.9 cm per day, if rhizobia are present, root nodulation begins by the time the third node appears
43.
Cash crop
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A cash crop is an agricultural crop which is grown for sale to return a profit. It is typically purchased by parties separate from a farm, the term is used to differentiate marketed crops from subsistence crops, which are those fed to the producers own livestock or grown as food for the producers family. In earlier times cash crops were only a small part of a farms total yield, while today, especially in developed countries. In the least developed countries, cash crops are usually crops which attract demand in developed nations. Prices for major crops are set in commodity markets with global scope, with some local variation based on freight costs and local supply. A consequence of this is that a nation, region, or individual producer relying on such a crop may suffer low prices should a bumper crop elsewhere lead to excess supply on the global markets and this system has been criticized by traditional farmers. Coffee is an example of a product that has been susceptible to significant commodity futures price variations, Issues involving subsidies and trade barriers on such crops have become controversial in discussions of globalization. The practice of exporting at artificially low prices is known as dumping, the Arctic climate is generally not conducive for the cultivation of cash crops. However, one potential cash crop for the Arctic is Rhodiola rosea, there is currently consumer demand for the plant, but the available supply is less than the demand. Cash crops grown in regions with a temperate climate include many cereals, oil-yielding crops, vegetables, tree fruit or top fruit, in regions with a subtropical climate, oil-yielding crops and some vegetables and herbs are the predominant cash crops. In regions with a climate, coffee, cocoa, sugar cane, bananas, oranges, cotton. The oil palm is a palm tree, and the fruit from it is used to make palm oil. Around 60 percent of African workers are employed in the agricultural sector, for example, in Burkina Faso 85% of its residents are reliant upon cotton production for income, and over half of the countrys population lives in poverty. Larger farms tend to grow crops such as coffee, tea, cotton, cocoa, fruit. These farms, typically operated by corporations, cover tens of square kilometres. Subsistence farms provide a source of food and a small income for families. Africa has realized significant growth in plantations, many of which are on lands which were purchased by British companies. Jatropha curcas is a crop grown for biofuel production in Africa
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Great Depression
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The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place during the 1930s. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, in most countries it started in 1929 and it was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. In the 21st century, the Great Depression is commonly used as an example of how far the economy can decline. The depression originated in the United States, after a fall in stock prices that began around September 4,1929. Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide GDP fell by an estimated 15%, by comparison, worldwide GDP fell by less than 1% from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession. Some economies started to recover by the mid-1930s, however, in many countries, the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted until the beginning of World War II. The Great Depression had devastating effects in both rich and poor. Personal income, tax revenue, profits and prices dropped, while international trade plunged by more than 50%, unemployment in the U. S. rose to 25% and in some countries rose as high as 33%. Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially dependent on heavy industry. Construction was virtually halted in many countries, farming communities and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by about 60%. Facing plummeting demand with few sources of jobs, areas dependent on primary sector industries such as mining and logging suffered the most. Even after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 optimism persisted for some time, john D. Rockefeller said These are days when many are discouraged. In the 93 years of my life, depressions have come, prosperity has always returned and will again. The stock market turned upward in early 1930, returning to early 1929 levels by April and this was still almost 30% below the peak of September 1929. Together, government and business spent more in the first half of 1930 than in the period of the previous year. On the other hand, consumers, many of whom had suffered losses in the stock market the previous year. In addition, beginning in the mid-1930s, a severe drought ravaged the agricultural heartland of the U. S, by mid-1930, interest rates had dropped to low levels, but expected deflation and the continuing reluctance of people to borrow meant that consumer spending and investment were depressed. By May 1930, automobile sales had declined to below the levels of 1928, prices in general began to decline, although wages held steady in 1930
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United States National Forest
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National Forest is a classification of protected and managed federal lands in the United States. The National Forest System was created by the Land Revision Act of 1891, abbot Kinney and forester Theodore Lukens were key spokesmen for the effort. In the United States there are 155 National Forests containing almost 190 million acres of land and these lands comprise 8.5 percent of the total land area of the United States, an area about the size of Texas. Some 87 percent of National Forest land lies west of the Mississippi River in the ranges of the Western United States. Alaska has 12 percent of all National Forest lands, the U. S. Forest Service also manages all of the United States National Grasslands, and around half of the United States National Recreation Areas. There are two different types of forests within the National Forest system. Those east of the Great Plains in the Midwestern and Eastern United States were primarily acquired by the government since 1891. The land had long been in the domain and sometimes repeatedly logged since colonial times. These are mostly lands that were kept in the domain, with the exception of inholdings. Land management of these areas focuses on conservation, timber harvesting, livestock grazing, watershed protection, wildlife, unlike national parks and other federal lands managed by the National Park Service, extraction of natural resources from national forests is permitted, and in many cases encouraged. National Forests are categorized by the U. S. as IUCN Category VI protected areas, however, the first-designated wilderness areas, and some of the largest, are on National Forest lands. There are management decision conflicts between conservationists and environmentalists, and natural resource extraction companies and lobbies, over the protection and/or use of National Forest lands, many ski resorts and summer resorts operate on leased land in National Forests
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Habitat destruction
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Habitat destruction is the process in which natural habitat is rendered unable to support the species present. In this process, the organisms that used the site are displaced or destroyed. Habitat destruction by human activity is mainly for the purpose of harvesting natural resources for production and urbanization. Clearing habitats for agriculture is the cause of habitat destruction. Other important causes of habitat destruction include mining, logging, trawling, habitat destruction is currently ranked as the primary cause of species extinction worldwide. Perhaps the greatest threat to organisms and biodiversity is the process of habitat loss, temple found that 82% of endangered bird species were significantly threatened by habitat loss. Endemic organisms with limited ranges are most affected by destruction, mainly because these organisms are not found anywhere else within the world. Many endemic organisms have very specific requirements for their survival that can only be found within a certain ecosystem, extinction may also take place very long after the destruction of habitat, a phenomenon known as extinction debt. Habitat destruction can also decrease the range of certain organism populations, one of the most famous examples is the impact upon Chinas giant panda, once found across the nation. Now it is found in fragmented and isolated regions in the southwest of the country. Biodiversity hotspots are chiefly tropical regions that feature high concentrations of species and. These hotspots are suffering from loss and destruction. Most of the habitat on islands and in areas of high human population density has already been destroyed. Islands suffering extreme habitat destruction include New Zealand, Madagascar, the Philippines, South and East Asia — especially China, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Japan — and many areas in West Africa have extremely dense human populations that allow little room for natural habitat. Marine areas close to highly populated coastal cities also face degradation of their coral reefs or other marine habitat and these areas include the eastern coasts of Asia and Africa, northern coasts of South America, and the Caribbean Sea and its associated islands. Regions of unsustainable agriculture or unstable governments, which may go hand-in-hand, central America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Amazonian tropical rainforest areas of South America are the main regions with unsustainable agricultural practices and/or government mismanagement. Areas of high agricultural output tend to have the highest extent of habitat destruction, in the U. S. less than 25% of native vegetation remains in many parts of the East and Midwest. Only 15% of land area remains unmodified by human activities in all of Europe, tropical rainforests have received most of the attention concerning the destruction of habitat
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Soil and Water Conservation District
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Conservation districts are government entities that provide technical assistance and tools to manage and protect land and water resources in U. S. states and insular areas. There are more than 3,000 in the United States, depending on the state, they may also be known as soil and water conservation districts, soil conservation districts, resource conservation districts, or other similar names. Nationally and within state, the districts are generally coordinated by non-governmental associations. District borders often coincide with county borders, the National Association of Conservation Districts is a non-profit organization that represents America’s conservation districts and the men and women who serve. Conservation districts are local units of government who are required by law to carry out natural resource management programs. Districts work with landowners and operators who are willing to help manage and protect land and water resources on all public. National Association of Conservation Districts National Conservation District Employees Association
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