6 Virginia Agricultural Statistics and Resource Bulletin the Beginning of the Beginning of the History of Corn Virginia Agriculture
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6 Virginia Agricultural Statistics and Resource Bulletin The Beginning of The Beginning of The History of Corn Virginia Agriculture hen seeds gathered for food were corn’s native habitat in Mexico) promoted a accidentally scattered around their stable food supply and stimulated a popula- campground, Native Americans tion explosion in the Mississippi Valley. Wdiscovered that harvesting the plants was easier Even with a stabilized food supply, Native the next season, and so began agriculture in Americans realized that a nomadic way of Virginia. life improved soil conditions, prevented over-harvesting of aquatic life, and reduced About 4,000 years ago, in the Woodland period, the risk of disease. They continued to live Eastern North American Indians domesticated nomadically for several thousand years. four native plants; squash, sunflower, sumpweed, and goosefoot. In time, knotweed, maygrass, and By systematically collecting and cultivating “little barley” were added to the list. Although different plants, Native Americans produced these wild plants were the beginning of agricul- crops suited for their climate and lifestyle. Corn is a domesticated form of teosinte, ture in Virginia, they provided a very limited When Europeans arrived in the 16th and 17th a wild grass found in isolated patches source of nourishment. Native Americans century, they found an established agricul- in the Mexican western Sierra Madre. continued to rely on nomadic hunting and tural system that included corn, melons, This early corn looked very different gathering for survival. At this time the popula- beans, squash, and tobacco. Out of these than today’s corn in that the kernels tion remained thin because the food supply was crops, corn and tobacco became the most were small and individually covered by unreliable. pivotal to Virginia history. Corn was the their own floral parts (similar to oats most sought after grain of the colonists and and barley) and the cob readily broke Eventually, Southwest and Mexican explorers, was used by Native Americans as a major into small fragments. Additionally, the playing an integral role in Virginia agriculture, bartering tool. Through tobacco, Virginia grain generally developed near the top introduced a different variety of squash (early Natives helped form the economic basis of of the plant. Over a period of thousands pumpkins rather than the earlier varieties of the first successful English colony in North of years, Mesoamerican natives im- modern acorn/summer squash), beans, and corn America. proved the crop by systematically se- cultivation. The variety of corn adapted to the lecting for desired traits which has led short growing season in Virginia (as opposed to to the present day appearance of corn. Teosinte plant. Lobelia Inflata or “Indian Tobacco” (teosinte photos by Hugh Iltis) Virginia Agricultural Statistics and Resource Bulletin 7 VVirirginiaginia VVirirginiaginia Colonists quickly gave up all other averaged 1.906 dollars per pound. products to meet the demand in The most valuable crop in terms of TTobaccoobacco England. As production increased Jamestown Exhibit total dollars was in 1981 when the phenominally into the 1620s, tobacco crop was valued at 266.6 million became readily available for mass dollars. hen John Rolfe arrived in consumption in England. All classes Virginia in 1610, the and genders smoked. Virginia How does tobacco compare with Virginia Company had not became synonymous with tobacco, the rest of Virginia agriculture? W and Virginians developed a way of found a profit-making commodity. In terms of all dollars received life revolving around its production. Rolfe learned that the Virginia from all agricultural products sold, Indians grew a ceremonial tobacco tobacco’s share has fallen from with a “byting taste.” Smokers in nearly 20 percent of the total in the England preferred the sweet-scented The USDA started keeping limited early 1960’s to around 3 percent variety imported from the Spanish annual tobacco statistics for Virginia today. This should not be colonies in the West Indies. in 1866. For that year, 70,000 acres surprising as tobacco quotas are of tobacco were harvested. The Aware of tobacco’s growing popular- cut, and as Virginia’s agricultural ity, Rolfe obtained and planted seeds average yield was 640 pounds to the base diversifies. When looking at of this sweet type. He sent a small acre and the total Virginia crop was just crop sales, tobacco is the shipment to England in 1614. By 44.8 million pounds. The value of number four cash crop in Virginia. 1616 more than 2,000 pounds were that crop was estimated at 13.3 cents It was the leading cash crop as late shipped, and by 1620, more than per pound or 5.96 million dollars. as 2003. In 2006, tobacco sales of 40,000 pounds. Profits soared and a Harvested acreage trended upward 71 million dollars was less than boom was on. Colonists began from 1866 until it peaked in 1920 at planting the “golden weed” every- tomatoes, soybeans and corn. 242,000 acres. Yields have also where, even, as Governor Samuel Argall noted in 1617, in “the market- trended upward since 1866 with the place, and streets, and all other spare current record yield of 2,320 pounds places” in Jamestown. As late as per acre recorded in 1999. Record 1630 Governor John Harvey reported tobacco production occurred in 1952 “no other commodity but tobacco in when the state produced 185.1 the colony” and a “great want of million pounds. The highest average corn.” price received by producers for all tobacco occurred in 2001, and After almost ten years of failure with various economic ventures, Virgin- ians at last found their cash crop in the "golden weed," tobacco. Tobacco became the colony's financial savior. 8 Virginia Agricultural Statistics and Resource Bulletin Tobacco Organizations Dark Tobacco Sales Cooperative P.O. Box 447 Farmville, VA 23901 434/392-4815 [email protected] Flue-Cured Tobacco Cooperative Stabilization Corporation Administrative Operations Manager P.O. Box 12300 Raleigh, NC 27605 919/821-4560 Fax: 919/821-4564 Sun-Cured Tobacco Marketing Coopera- tive, Inc. P.O. Box 447 Farmville, VA 23901 434/392-3785 [email protected] Virginia Bright Flue-Cured Tobacco Board P.O. Box 129 Halifax, VA 24558 434/572-4568 Fax: 434/572-8234 Virginia Dark-Fired Tobacco Board P.O. Box 129 Halifax, VA 24558 434/572-4568 Fax: 434/572-8234 Virginia Dark-Fired Tobacco Growers Marketing Association, Inc. P.O. Box 447 Farmville, VA 23901 804/392-3785 1/ Tobacco Statistics, 2006 Virginia Tobacco Growers Association 1968 Henrico Road Buffalo Junction, VA 24529 Acres Harvested (acres) ................................ 19,650 The ports of Hampton Roads are 434/575-8584 Flue ................................... 17,000 the largest in the United States in Burley .................................. 2,300 exporting tobacco and tobacco Fire ......................................... 350 products. Value of Production (thous. dols.) ............... 71,187 Cash Receipts (thous. dols.) ............................ 71,595 Rank with Other Producing States Based on Production (number) ............................... 5 Virginia Production as Percent of US Total (percent) ............................................... 6.42 1/ Preliminary. Virginia Agricultural Statistics and Resource Bulletin 9 Preserving Our Agricultural History rom the Jamestown landing to civil war battlefields, Virginia is F an historically rich state and her Northern Neck Farm Museum agricultural history is no exception.Virginia’s Is A Vision In Progress farm museums and living history museums tell When Luther Welch began collecting various farm implementa- a rich and full story of her past and present tions several years ago, it was basically on a whim. agricultural history. From colonial farming to “I was just collecting items that reminded me of my family’s goat milking; antique equipment to a hands-on homestead and growing up on the farm,” the 74 year old Lancaster county farmer said. “I didn’t know this museum was going to farming experience for children, the options are come into being. I was just collecting things that I used from endless in Virginia’s agricultural museums. when I was a boy as young as 6 years old.” Since then Welch has amassed thousands of pieces ranging from jacks and saw blades to early-19th-century tractors and even a treadmill built for dogs to provide a little low-cost farm labor. “You put a dog in there, he turns the belt and that in turn would be attached to a grinder or other small piece of equipment,” Welch explained. “We’d put the dogs to work too, and we had bigger treaders for horses.” Welch’s collection outgrew a standard room and is now housed in a 20,000 square foot barn. Most of the tractors and other mechanized machinery are oper- able, as Welch not only acquired the pieces, but restored a great many of them. Each item has been tagged and inventoried. The plan is for the museum to cover the agricultural history of the Northern Neck, from farming techniques and crops of the Rappahannock Indians, to the Colonial era, the plantation pe- riod through industrial and mechanized farming, when canner- ies flourished in the area. There is no definite opening date for the museum. Thanks to volunteer help, a design for the building has been drafted; the Board members and volunteers of the Northern Neck Farm clean and next step is to begin construction. Ideally, the museum would restore a donated windmill. be up and running by spring of 2008. 10 Virginia Agricultural Statistics and Resource