Agriculture Commons^™

Radical Social Ecology As Deep Pragmatism: A Call To The Abolition Of Systemic Dissonance And The Minimization Of Entropic Chaos, Arielle Brender

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper aims to shed light on the dissonance caused by the superimposition of Dominant Human Systems on Natural Systems. I highlight the synthetic nature of Dominant Human Systems as egoic and linguistic phenomenon manufactured by a mere portion of the human population, which renders them inherently oppressive unto peoples and landscapes whose wisdom were barred from the design process. In pursuing a radical pragmatic approach to mending the simultaneous oppression and destruction of the human being and the earth, I highlight the necessity of minimizing entropic chaos caused by excess energy expenditure, an essential feature of systems that aim …

Rebuilt And Remade: The Florida Citrus Industry, 1909-1939, James Padgett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Prior to orange juice concentrate, Florida citrus was already an industrialized agricultural sector. This thesis explores the early-20th-century Florida citrus industry and demonstrates that contemporary farming practices were influential in advancing how citrus was produced, processed, worked, marketed, and regulated in early-20th-century Florida. Restarted after devastating freezes in 1894-1895, resolute Florida growers rebuilt their groves into marvels of large-scale citrus fruit production. Continuing a legacy in experimental crossbreeding, improved varieties of citrus were developed to lengthen the season and markets. Advocated by nurserymen and university educators, biological innovation helped the citrus thrive in the 1910s and 1920s from adverse weather …

Fear And (Non) Fiction: Agrarian Anxiety In “The Colour Out Of Space”, Antonio Barroso

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This literary and sociological study examines H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Colour Out of Space” alongside New England agricultural societies in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as their members faced socio-political change. Anxieties expressed in the short story reflect fears of communities facing erasure at the hands of a reservoir project. Patterns of historical American rural communities facing destruction in the name of progress as well as modern communities facing similar threats show the endurance of Lovecraft’s specific brand of fear.

In The Field The Women Saved The Crop: The Women’S Land Army Of World War Ii, Denna M. Clymer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Women’s Land Army brought together rural and urban sectors of the United States in a climate of national and regional crisis. By the time the country was cast into war, the agricultural sector was already caught in a downward economic spiral that drove away laborers. With demand falling, and farms propped up only by experiments in subsidy and parity, when military and industrial jobs emerged in urban areas, farm laborers became scarce. At the same time the war created jobs for men outside of the agricultural sector, farm prices recovered and demand soared, forcing farmers to look to women …

The Bracero Program In The Arkansas Delta: The Power Held By Planter Elite, William Chase Whittington

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the Bracero Program and its implementation from the start of World War II to the end of the program in 1964. Farmers and planters in America needed a sufficient labor supply once the war started, and Mexico became the main supplier. The Bracero Program was initiated as a war effort and meant to only last until the end of the war, but the planter elite had far different intentions once they realized how productive and inexpensive the program could be. This paper identifies the leading causes for how the Bracero Program was able to last over twenty …

Ennis, William Franklin, Sr., 1856-1939 (Mss 614), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 614. Journals with short entries about daily happenings and listings of farm expenses for William F. Ennis, a farmer, quarry owner, and businessman from Warren County, Kentucky. Also includes some poetry, weather information, and data about an unnamed individual conducting a school.

Refusing To Be Dispossessed: African American Land Retention In The Us South From Reconstruction To World War Ii, Camille Goldmon

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

African Americans in the South were tied to the land during slavery and after emancipation. Many felt that land ownership was the key to freedom. For decades, black farmers strove for land ownership, in many cases falling prey to sharecropping and tenancy agreements in the meantime. Despite this drive toward independent farming, however, since 1920, there has been a steady decline in the number of black farm owners. This trend is especially prevalent in the Southern United States. The black farm owners who persevered through periods of economic, social, and political turmoil were able to, for varying reasons, navigate those …

In Essentials, Unity : An Economic History Of The Grange Movement, Jenny Bourne

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

The Patrons of Husbandry—or the Grange—is the longest-lived US agricultural society and, since its founding shortly after the Civil War, has had immeasurable influence on social change as enacted by ordinary Americans. The Grange sought to relieve the struggles of small farmers by encouraging collaboration. Pathbreaking for its inclusion of women, the Grange is also well known for its association with Gilded Age laws aimed at curbing the monopoly power of railroads.

In Essentials, Unity takes as its focus Grange founder Oliver Kelley and his home organization in Minnesota. Jenny Bourne draws upon numerous historical records to present a lively …

Meador, Thomas (Sc 3074), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid, scan and typescript (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3074. Agreement, 25 February 1854, between O. S. Warner and Thomas Meador setting out the terms of Meador’s employment on Warner’s farm in Breckinridge County, Kentucky. The agreement provides for payment, the provision of housing and produce from an orchard, and the use of pasture by Meador. Meador’s 12-month, full-time engagement makes allowances for his family and business, and for “unnecessary exposure” to “wet weather or heavy dews.”

Interview With Paul Kilgus, Ben Halpern

Oral History Interviews & Transcripts

No abstract provided.

Interview With Pat Feeney, Part 1, Ben Halpern

Oral History Interviews & Transcripts

No abstract provided.

Interview With Pat Feeney, Part 2, Ben Halpern

Oral History Interviews & Transcripts

No abstract provided.

Agricultural And Industrial Development Board (Sc 2993), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2993. Summary report for 1948 on the activities of the Agricultural and Industrial Development Board, an agency created by the Kentucky General Assembly in February, 1948 to survey, study and promote the state’s natural and man-made resources for future development.

Everyday Farm Life In The Moxee Valley 1915-1950: Historical Ethnography, Terri Towner

All Master's Theses

This study collected oral histories of those who lived or worked in the Moxee Valley, within the greater Yakima Valley of Washington State from 1915-1950. It documents and records the historical and cultural processes of farm life and its evolution for people living in this foremost hop-growing region of the United States. The larger goal is to characterize the community and social processes for use as primary source documentation to create historically accurate programs at the Gendron Hop Ranch-Living History Farm near Moxee. Nineteen participants were interviewed. Topics addressed in the study include farming in the Valley, the household, roles …

J.K. Southerland: From Check-R-Mix To Fancy Pack, Pioneering The Poultry Industry In North Central Arkansas, Nancy Patrice Dowdy

Student Theses and Dissertations

Batesville, Arkansas is home to several local and cross-country trucking firms, many of which transport commodities directly related to the poultry industry that developed in the region. The growth of the trucking businesses, as well as numerous other companies and retail stores, is a direct result of the poultry industry that began there in the mid-1930s and for decades has supplied locally grown product to all parts of the United States. The man primarily responsible for the launch of the trucking firms and the expansion of the poultry trade as a major economic force in North Central Arkansas was Jerome …

Wiggins, Otis Lee, B. 1905 (Sc 2949), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2949. Two cassette tapes which include an interview conducted by Robert H. McGaughey with Otis Lee Wiggins about the resettlement program undertaken by the Resettlement Administration Project 14 in Christian County, Kentucky. Wiggins was an administrator for the U.S. Resettlement Administration and discusses the Christian County program in great detail.

Washer, Gladys Pernie, 1879-1975 (Sc 2854), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2854. Reminiscence titled "Sketches of My Childhood To My Grandchildren" in which Gladys P. Washer talks about her childhood in the Three Forks area of Warren County, Kentucky. She discusses farming, recreation, education and schools, and social life and customs. Also includes a news clipping about her from 1965.

Jeffrey, Jonathan David, B. 1960 (Sc 2847), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2847. Historic Farms Certificate Application, Kentucky Historic Resources Abbreviated Survey Form and supporting material, prepared by Jonathan D. Jeffrey to designate the Paschal Howell Farm, Warren County, Kentucky, a centennial farm. This designation is bestowed on farms that have been owned by the same family for one hundred years or more. Includes compact disc with 13 photographs.

French, Richard, 1792-1854 (Sc 2825), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2825. Letter of U.S. Representative Richard French, 29 December 1844, written from Washington, D.C. to his wife in Mount Sterling, Kentucky. He expresses regret for the time spent away from home, acknowledges the need to consult with her about their future after his return, and discusses apparent tensions between her and a farm manager.

Shakers - South Union, Kentucky (Sc 1395), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1395. Catalog of garden seeds grown by the Shaker society at South Union, Kentucky, 1867; Shaker letterhead with cake recipe; and instructions for growing summer turnips.

Pearcifield & Mcgown - South Union, Kentucky (Sc 1238), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1238. Franked advertising envelope from the firm of Pearcifield & McGown, South Union, Kentucky, to E.D. Hicks, Nashville, Tennessee. The company was a dealer in Shaker garden seeds and Berkshire and Poland China pigs.

Moore, Carlos Wright, 1884-1951 (Mss 156), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid for Manuscripts Collection 156. Family and business papers of Warren County, Kentucky farmer Carlos W. Moore and school teacher Mae White, who became his wife. Topics include courtship, farming and school teaching. Also includes a page of genealogical information from the Wright family Bible (Click on "Additional Files" below for scan).

Borders, Forest, 1893-1971 (Sc 1173), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1173. Miscellaneous materials from Forest Borders, including newspaper clippings, magazine articles, and advertising related to his Borders Pure Milk Company of Bowling Green, Kentucky. Also includes a soil conservation plan with maps for his Warren County farm.

Devine, Lillian K., 1895-1990 (Mss 463), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 463. Farm ledgers for the Devine family farm in Grass Township, Spencer County, Indiana, as well as personal daily dairies of Lillian K. Devine, 1960-1981.

Hoskinson, Virginia Adeline (Smith), 1892-1956 (Sc 2691), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2691. Handwritten memo, undated, of Virginia Hoskinson, Glendale, Kentucky, doing business as Mrs. Stanley P. Hoskinson, breeder of Bourbon Red Turkeys and Golden Wyandotte and Buff Leghorn Chickens. She quotes a price for a particular turkey and describes the quality and pricing of other stock.

Roark, Ethel Elizabeth (Stagner), 1913-1992 (Mss 105), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 105. Miscellaneous papers collected by Ethel Roark, Franklin, Kentucky. Includes a World War II letter; personal letters (4); Knights of Pythias certificate; general store ledger with a 1929 inventory; 1954 letter promoting legal alcohol sales in Simpson County; and 1965 farm diary.

Loleta Creamery Research Notes, Susie Van Kirk

Susie Van Kirk Papers

Susie Van Kirks research materials related to the Loleta Creamery. Includes descriptions of site visits, deed chronology and newspaper references; primarily from the Ferndale Enterprise and Humboldt Times from the early 20th Century.

Bibb, George Motier, 1776-1859 (Sc 789), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and typescript (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 789. Letter written to a doctor by George Motier Bibb, Logan County, Kentucky, 26 August 1810, describing some Logan County, Kentucky farm land and buildings.

Omer, Charles Henry, 1865-1937 (Mss 436), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 436. Personal journals of Charles Henry Omer of Union County, Kentucky. In this daily record Omer records information about his farming, family and church activities, the weather, as well as prices for food, timber and farm supplies.

Tunks, Floyd Mckinley, 1896?-1959 (Sc 729), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 729. Livestock receipts (2) of Floyd McKinley Tunks, Smiths Grove, Kentucky, from Montgomery and Company, livestock dealers, Louisville, Kentucky, listing prices paid for cattle sold for Tunks.