FARMER'S WORLD

PERSPECTIVE:

VALLEY TO VALLEY, COUNTRY TO COUNTRY Valley to Valley y BOND WITH THE EARTH Country to Country MIGRATIONS AND AGRICULTURE hy WAYNE D. RASMUSSEN QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED

NUTRITIONAL STATUS CIVILIZATION began when man planted his first seed and tamed his first animal OF THE WORLD about 10 thousand years ago. Before that, for a million years, people lived WORLD SOURCES precariously on the fruits and seeds the OF PROTEIN women gathered and the small animals the men killed. In the few years since— few, as history measures time—agricul- POPULATION, INCOME, ture and civilization have advanced AND FOOD from valley to valley, country to coun- try, hemisphere to hemisphere as men POTENTIALS FOR have shared seeds, tools, skills, knowl- edge, and hopes. FOOD PRODUCTION Very likely one of mankind's greatest achievements—planting and harvest- SOIL CONSERVATION, A ing crops—came about through a prim- WORLD MOVEMENT itive woman's observation while she was gathering seeds. She may have WATER HAS A noticed that the grain-bearing grasses grew up where seeds had been spilled KEY ROLE or stored. Then she herself placed some seeds in the ground and saw them grow. ENGINEERING IN Animal husbandry probably devel- AGRICULTURE oped when men succeeded in taming animals that they had wounded or driven into enclosures for slaughter, THE NEED FOR but it also is likely that women saved FERTILIZERS and tamed young animals. Farming and animal husbandry de- CHEMICALS IN veloped together for a long period. The herding of livestock came later. CROP PRODUCTION Agriculture originated first in the Middle East, perhaps in the grassy up- THE PLACE OF lands where the wild grains and the INSECTICIDES wild animals first to be domesticated were found. Excavations at the site of 712-224"—64 2 THE YEARBOOK OP AGRICULTURE 1964 the village of Jarmo in present-day the hoe gave it greater cutting power. Iraq indicate that 7 thousand years Similarly, a stick used to knock heads ago people there had two varieties of of grain loose from the stalks became a wheat, barley, sheep, goats, pigs, cattle, sickle when stone teeth were set along horses, and dogs. Tools were of pol- one edge. ished or chipped flint and obsidian, After animals were domesticated for a volcanic glass. The use of obsidian is food, they soon began to serve as evidence of early trade; its nearest beasts of burden. The next step, one known source is Lake Van in Turkey. never taken by the American Indian, Agriculture spread from the Middle was to fasten a heavy hoe behind an East to such areas as the Danubian animal and induce him to pull it Basin, the western and northern shores through the ground. of the Black Sea, the fertile crescent The climate of the Middle East and bordering the desert of Arabia, and the northern Africa gradually became valleys of the Indus in eastern India drier after man first discovered agricul- and the Hwang Ho in northern China. ture. Tribes and villages moved from The cultural pattern was much the poorly watered sites to sources of water same, except in the Americas, where as the centuries passed. At the same agriculture probably was discovered time, man began to irrigate his crop- independently. land wherever he had access to water. Our farming ancestors over the cen- The simplest device was to dip water turies accomplished feats that modern from a well or spring and pour it on the man has not yet duplicated. Drawing land. Many types of buckets, ropes, upon wild stock, they developed all the and, later, pulleys were used. A more major food plants and domestic ani- continuous flow was provided by the mals grown today. swipe, or shadoof, a long pole pivoted Wheat and barley were domesticated from a beam. One end of the pole held in the first area of agricultural develop- a bucket; the other held a heavy clay ment, southwestern Asia. Rice and ba- weight. A man pulled the bucket down nanas were developed later in south- to the water, and the clay weight then eastern Asia, and sorghum and millets lifted the filled container to a height in Africa. Maize, known as corn in where it could be emptied into a ditch. America, and potatoes were among A shadoof could raise about 600 gal- several major food crops developed in lons a day. the New World. The conduction of water through Food animals were first domesticated ditchçs from streams was practiced in Asia. The turkey was domesticated widely in the Middle East, where the in the New World. Eventually these ancient canal systems still can be seen. crops, many others, and animals mi- The periodic floods of the Nile in Egypt grated throughout the world. led to the development of systems of The accomplishments are even great- basins on the upper Nile to hold the er when we consider the tools the first waters. The basins were opened to per- farmers invented and used. A pointed mit the water to flow over the dyke- stick, the digging stick, was the last tool enclosed tracts when it was needed. of the food gatherer and the first of the Cereals were domesticated at an farmer. The stick, which had been used early age because they kept well and to grub up roots, served to dig holes for could be stored for use during lean seeds. Somebody added a crossbar, so years and winter. Even in his food- that a man could use his foot to drive gathering stage, man stored grain, the stick deeper into the soil. That was seeds, and nuts. Ancient Egyptians the origin of the spade. A stick that had preserved meat and fish by salting and a branch at one end and could be drying them in the sun. pulled through the ground was the first The discovery of metal and its uses hoe. Later a blade of stone or shell on brought the Neolithic Era to an end VALLEY TO VALLEY, COUNTRY TO COUNTRY and gave farmers sharper, stronger B.C., and in Germany and northern blades for hoes, plow points, and Europe through medieval times. sickles. The change to metal took place But farmers of ancient times did not slowly and in some areas—the Ameri- rely solely on fallowing to improve the cas, for example—not at all. Most soil. Ashes, animal manure, and com- cultures first used bronze, then iron. posts were used in the Middle East, Greece, and Rome. The Greeks and WHEN AGRICULTURE appeared in writ- Romans added lime in various forms. ten history in the time of the Egyp- The Roman farmers could draw tians, Greeks, and Romans, it was upon farm manuals by Cato the Cen- already a highly developed art, backed sor, writing about 200 B.C., or his suc- by years of progress based on observa- cessors, including Varro and Colu- tion and trial and error. Some early mella, for advice on ways to grow olives Chinese historians assigned the begin- and grapes and press the fruits for oil ning of agriculture in China to a and juice. Bread, oil, wine, figs, and specific year, 2737 B.C., when a grapes were staples in the ancient continuous record of political life was Mediterranean diet. started. Farming undoubtedly had been practiced before that particular IMPROVEMENTS spread slowly. year, but giving a new ruler credit for The methods the ancients used sur- teaching farming to the people indi- vived with modifications in many parts cates the value they placed on it. of the world for centuries. Agriculture enabled a man to pro- Fallowing, for example, was the basis duce more than enough food for for England's well-known two- and himself and his family. Some labor three-field systems of medieval times. thus could be released for the develop- The medieval English manor, with its ment of other aspects of civilization, villagers and lord, was divided into such as industry, the arts and sciences, garden, arable, meadow, pasture, and government, and writing. waste land. The arable land was di- Ancient civilizations, from the in- vided into two or three large fields, vention of writing to the beginning of which in turn were divided into strips the Christian Era, saw the adoption of an acre or less. Each villager would of systems of land use aimed at pre- farm a number of scattered strips. Un- serving or restoring soil fertility. The der the two-field system, half the land first farmers had practiced natural was left fallow. The other half was husbandry; that is, simply sowing and planted with winter and spring grain. reaping. They moved on to new land In the three-field system, one field was when yields declined. fallow, one was planted in wheat or Sometimes the increase in popula- rye, and one was planted in some tion that usually followed the establish- spring crop, such as barley, oats, peas, ment of a settled village economy made or beans. The three-field system per- it difiiicult to move to new land. In mitted as much as 50 percent greater several parts of the world farmers then productivity than the two-field system. turned to fallow. Every year, according Two other developments in northern to some plan which became fixed, part Europe during medieval times also in- of the land was given special treat- creased productivity: A heavy plow ment. No seed would be planted on it. that could turn the soil was invented. The weeds and grass would be plowed The invention of the horse collar per- under at least once during the growing mitted the effective use of horsepower. season so as to rid it of some weeds and Fallowing sometimes gave way to parasites, add vegetable matter, and rotations. Nitrogen-fixing legumes- conserve moisture. The fallow system peas, beans, vetches, alfalfa^—would be was used in ancient Greece and Rome, grown on a field formerly fallow. The in China from perhaps as early as 2000 system arose through trial and error THE YEARBOOK OF AGRICULTURE 1964 after it was noted that small grain They used fertilizer, and they adapted planted on land formerly in legumes their crops to the land. They practiced usually yielded more. It was practiced grafting and introduced many trees oftenest when towns and cities arose and plants into northern Africa. and farmers had a ready market for all Much less is known of farming in they could produce. Legume rotation central Africa 500 years ago. Ruins of succeeded fallowing in limited areas of large cities indicate that parts of the ancient Greece and Rome, in parts of region had an extensive agriculture. China shortly before the Christian Era, Terraces, plainly of an agricultural and in Germany and England in the nature, and long-abandoned irrigation 16th century. works in present-day Ethiopia, Kenya, and Rhodesia must be examined fur- As THE MEDIEVAL period passed in ther before we can know the whole story Europe, the beginning of the modern of civilizations that flourished as late as age was marked by a renewed interest the 15th century and then disappeared. of Europeans in other parts of the world, followed by exploration and by IN CONTRAST, the story of American conquest. Indian agriculture at the time Co- Some early explorers brought foreign lumbus discovered the New World is plants and animals back to Europe. recorded. The Spaniards conquered Accounts of their explorations, writings two Indian civilizations, the Aztecs of travelers, and archeological and his- of Mexico and the Incas of Peru. torical reconstructions of the past have Both civilizations were based upon given us a picture of farming in the settled agriculture. These, like the less- 15th century. er centers, had developed independ- Soil exhaustion, erosion, war, and ently of the rest of the world. corruption had brought such a decline Among the crops originating in the in Chinese agriculture that by the year New World, corn, kidney and lima 151 o many farmers were dying of star- beans, squashes, pumpkins, and to- vation. It was a factor that led to the bacco were grown in many parts of overthrow of the Ming dynasty by the North and South America. Corn, or Manchus, invaders from the north, maize, the most important crop of early in the 17th century. American origin, was developed in the India, the goal of many European highlands of Mexico. The potato ri- explorers in the 15th century, was a valed corn in importance in South land of fruit and spices. Rice, peas, and America. It originated in the Andes. millet were basic crops. Curry, ginger, Manioc, sweetpotatoes, pineapples, cloves, cinnamon, and other spices and peanuts were developed as sources added variety to the diet. Most farm- of food in the Amazon Valley. Only work was done by hand by farmers incidental crops, such as the Jerusalem who paid rents and taxes to the rulers. artichoke, were first developed in what Irrigation works were maintained by is now the United States. the government in some sections. An The Indians had dogs but few other Englishman in India in 1616 wrote domesticated animals. In Peru, they that "the plenty of all provisions" was had llamas, alpacas, and guinea pigs. "very great throughout the whole Turkeys were kept in Mexico and the country," and "every one there may southwestern United States. The Aztecs eat bread without scarceness." and Mayas of Mexico and Central Northern Africa was well known to America kept bees. the Europeans of Columbus' day. The Irrigation was practiced from what is Arabs who had swept across that area now Arizona to Chile. There were and into Spain made sugar from cane about 150 miles of main irrigation and grew many kinds of wine grapes. ditches in the Salt River Valley. Irri- Their irrigation systems were good. gation was carried out in Peru on a VALLEY TO VALLEY, COUNTRY TO COUNTRY scale scarcely equaled in modern The agricultural methods brought to days. Many Indians fertilized their the New World by the first European crops. Along the Atlantic coast, fish immigrants difí'ered little from those of were placed in cornhills during plant- a thousand years earlier. Yet Europe, ing. Nevertheless, agriculture in the particularly England, was on the verge New World was limited by the lack of of a new era of developments that were draft animals and the failure to dis- to culminate in an agricultural revolu- cover the uses of iron. Away from a few tion and were marked by the scientific major centers of civilization, Indian rotation of crops and, in England, by farmers practiced natural husbandry, the enclosure of many fields and scat- clearing new land as yields declined. tered strips of land. Rotation and en- The first European colonists in the closure were a result of a growing New World, particularly in what is market economy and the consequent now the United States, found it emphasis on commercial farming. difficult to adapt European methods to Greater emphasis on commercial American conditions. They faced star- farming led to some consolidation of vation and survived only because of holdings in England under the open- supplies received from the mother field system. At the same time, some countries and the food they bought or pastures and croplands were enclosed. took from the Indians. The perma- The enclosure movement in the i6th nence of the Colonies was not assured century was undertaken mainly to until agriculture was securely estab- furnish pasturelands for sheep—the lished, and that came after they demand for wool of the spinning and adopted the crops and tillage methods weaving industries was more effective of the natives. than the demand for wheat. While the Indians of America con- The development of scientific rota- tributed much to world agriculture, tions owed much to new methods and the Europeans who conquered and crops introduced from other European settled the New World introduced nations. Clover was introduced from livestock, crops, and tools. Spain, turnip cultivation from Flan- The axe and the plow, with the ders, and new grasses from France. Al- animals to pull the plows, were carried though their value was recognized by to America by all of the national the end of the i6th century, they were groups entering the New World. not widely grown until later. The Spaniards brought alfalfa, bar- Farm tools were crude at the begin- ley, flax, oats, sugarcane, wheat, and ning of the period. The large and cum- many others. They brought their bersome wooden plows usually were grapes, oranges, peaches, pears, and drawn by oxen. After the soil was bro- other fruits and vegetables. ken, iron- or wooden-toothed harrows By 1606, the French had planted were pulled over the land. All crops cabbage, flax, hemp, oats, rye, wheat, were seeded by hand. Grain crops were and other crops in Canada. cut with scythes or reaping hooks and The English brought all the crops threshed with flails. Hoes, mattocks, and livestock they had grown at home. spades, and forks completed the list. Other nations introduced particular Often the ideas for machines were breeds and varieties of animals and well known before they were adopted. plants. Grain drills are an example. The The new settlers themselves made Chinese had used a wheelbarrow drill some improvements. For example, as early as 2800 B.C. The first English John Rolfe of Virginia obtained to- patent was granted in 1623. A more bacco seed from South America in practical drill was described by John 1612 and raised a crop from it, which Worlidge in 1669. Not until about established American exports of to- 1700, however, when Jethro Tull made bacco to England. and publicized a seed drill, did these THE YEARBOOK OF AGRICULTURE 1964 devices attract much attention. TuU well (i 725-1 795), Arthur Young also urged the adoption of the French (1741-1820), Sir John Sinclair (1745- horse hoe, or cultivator. 1835), and Thomas Coke (1752-1842). Many types of plows were used in Tull invented a grain drill and ad- Great Britain, but the first definite step vocated more intensive cultivation and toward making plows in factories came the use of animal power. Townshend in 1730, when the Rotherham plow set an example of better farming was introduced. It had a colter and through improvements in crop rota- share made of iron and may have been tions and in emphasizing the field cul- brought to England from Holland. It tivation of turnips and clover. Bake- was called the Dutch plow in Scotland. well devoted himself to developing The introduction of root crops, clo- better breeds of livestock. Young and ver, and grasses into a four-course crop Sinclair were influential writers, whose rotation provided support for a larger works were studied in many parts of number of livestock. The principle of the world. Coke developed a model selective breeding had been known for agricultural estate, working partic- generations, but the creation of new ularly with wheat and sheep. Farm breeds that gave general satisfaction leaders and statesmen from many parts was a long process. Improvement of of the world visited his estate. the old native varieties by crossing Other European countries contrib- with the newer breeds took longer. uted to the agricultural revolution, but The improvement of livestock was advance was most rapid in England. related to the enclosure of former open- The physiocrats, a school of econo- field farms and the conversion of com- mists who emphasized the importance mon and waste land into pasture. The and virtue of agriculture, influenced movement began in the i6th century agricultural thought in France in the and was partly arrested by legislation ; 18th century. They appeared to yearn in the 18th century it received support for earlier days when agrarian interests from Parliament. The enclosure of pas- were dominant but were indifferent to tures gave the livestock farmers con- proved methods of progressive farming. trol over breeding and permitted more For example, fallowing persisted in rapid improvements in their herds. most of France, with little protest All of these slow changes in English from the physiocrats, long after the farming resulted in an agricultural rev- value of the scientific rotation of crops olution, which reached its peak in the had been demonstrated in England. first half of the 19th century. By then, France contributed a new method of greatly improved methods had been food preservation, canning. It per- adopted, total output of farm products mitted the year-round use of many and output per man-hour had gone otherwise perishable foods. In 1795, up, and livestock and crop husbandry when France was at war, the Govern- seemed to be in balance with each ment offered a prize to the citizen who other and the rest of the economy. could devise a method of preserving Over a period of 150 years, a num- food for transport on military and na- ber of agricultural leaders influenced val campaigns. The prize was awarded British farmers and landowners to in 1810 to Nicolas Appert, a Parisian adopt improved practices. They were confectioner. He had filled bottles able to influence farming because in- with various foods, sealed the bottles, dustrialization, improved transporta- and cooked them in boiling water. tion, and other economic forces made The Napoleonic wars also gave im- the adoption of the improvements petus to the sugarbeet industry. An- practical and profitable. dreas Marggraf, a German chemist, in The most noted of the reformers were 1747 had crystallized sucrose from Jethro Tull (i 674-1740), Charles beets. One of his pupils, Franz Karl Townshend (i 674-1738), Robert Bake- Achard, built the first sugarbeet fac- VALLEY TO VALLEY, COUNTRY TO COUNTRY tory in Silesia in 1802. With imports Jersey in 1781. The Philadelphia Soci- cut off because of war, Napoleon en- ety for Promoting Agriculture and the couraged the building of a number of South Carolina Society for Promot- factories in France, where the industry ing and Improving Agriculture were persisted. Efforts were made to estab- founded in 1785. lish factories in the United States from The early agricultural societies were 1830 on; the first successful American groups of men of all professions who plant opened in California in 1879. could afford to experiment and who As the European nations expanded would seek out and adapt to American their colonies over the world, they in- conditions the progress made in other fluenced farming everywhere. The countries. None were farmers who influence was greatest in the thinly depended solely on the produce of their populated regions, such as the New farms for a living. Among them were World and Australia, and least in George Washington and Thomas Jef- densely populated regions like India. ferson. They corresponded with English When Napoleon led his armies into agricultural reformers. Both were in- Egypt in 1798, he commented on the terested in soil conservation. Washing- good quality of its agricultural pro- ton was first in this country to raise duce and suggested that with French mules. Jefferson introduced upland help the Nile Valley could become a rice and designed a hillside plow, a Garden of Eden. He established a mold board for a plow that would turn plant introduction garden in Egypt in the soil, and other implements. 1800 and asked for French fruit trees. The changes in England during the A group of French gardeners set out 18th century included the develop- for Egypt the next year, but the British ment of improved breeds of livestock. captured them at sea. The first importations of Bakewell's Many years later, in 1882, the British improved cattle were made by two began a policy of agricultural reform gentlemen farmers of Maryland and and assistance in Egypt, building in Virginia in 1783. Large numbers of part upon reforms introduced by the Merino sheep were imported from rulers of Egypt in the preceding dec- France and Spain a few years later. ades. During the first decade of British The first Hereford cattle were im- rule, many irrigation works were com- ported by another statesman, Henry pleted and repaired, and the first Clay, in 1817. Nevertheless, most Aswan dam was begun. The acreage American livestock during the first brought under cultivation increased. half of the 19th century wandered Europe's greatest impact on world about the open countryside. agriculture followed the discovery, Some leaders recognized the need to conquest, and settlement of the New reach ordinary farmers. Elkanah Wat- World and, later, the development of son organized the Berkshire Agricul- reforms and improvements, which en- tural Society at Pittsfield, Mass., in couraged changes in farming. 1811. Its purpose was to hold an an- For more than a century, however, nual fair for the farmers of the commu- Americans knew little of the changes nity. The idea spread rapidly but de- in European agriculture. Gradually, clined when farmers did not realize scientific societies, such as the Ameri- their exaggerated hopes of benefits to can Philosophical Society, founded in be gained. Farm journals, first the Ag- 1743, encouraged the investigation of ricultural Museum in 1810 and then the European ideas and experiences and American Farmer in 1819, also tried, but agricultural experimentation. Societies they received little support. devoted entirely to agriculture were Production per man-hour in the not organized until the United States United States increased only a little had declared its independence. The from 1800 to 1840 and somewhat more first of record was established in New from 1840 to 1860. 8 THE YEARBOOK OF AGRICULTURE 1964 But a technological foundation was to Agriculture and Physiology in 1840. being laid for a revolution in produc- Liebig's theories brought science to tion. At the beginning of the period, agriculture in Europe, and his influ- the cotton gin, invented in 1793 by Eli ence was felt in America. Whitney, greatly changed agriculture Commercial fertilizer was used in in the South. The cheap, efficient sep- the United States, beginning with Pe- aration of the seeds from the fiber en- ruvian guano in the 1840's. Mixed couraged planters to grow more cotton. chemical fertilizer first appeared on The extensive commercial production the market in 1849. Modern irrigation of cotton dominated farming and led agriculture began in the United States to the expansion of the plantation sys- in 1847, when Mormon pioneers tem. The South grew the one crop and opened a ditch in Utah. neglected more diversified agriculture, The United States Congress in 1862 while it depended on England and the passed four laws, all signed by Presi- North for markets and for supplies of dent Abraham Lincoln, which were to other farm products and manufactured help transform American agriculture. articles. At the same time, cotton culti- The Homestead Act encouraged west- vation brought about the rapid settle- ern settlement. The Morrill Land- ment of the region and returned large Grant College Act encouraged agricul- sums to the planters. tural education. The act establishing A cast-iron plow with interchange- the Department of Agriculture provid- able parts, patented in 1819 by Jethro ed a means for assisting farmers to Wood, was a major contribution. It adopt better methods. The act charter- would not scour in the heavy soils of ing the Union Pacific Railroad assisted the prairies, however; the soil clung to in opening western land. the moldboard instead of sliding by Agriculture from 1850 to 1870 was a and turning over. Two Illinois black- decisive element in our economic de- smiths, John Lane in 1833 and John velopment. The coming together of Deere in 1837, solved the problem by various lines of technology, the em- using a smooth steel and polished phasis on agricultural reform, and the wrought iron for the shares and mold- profitability of agriculture created an boards of their plows. agricultural revolution. The profitabil- The mechanical reaper was proba- ity of farming was due primarily to the bly the most significant single inven- greatly increased overseas demands for tion introduced into American farming American farm products and the de- between 1800 and the Civil War. It mand for products to support the replaced much human power at the armies in the Civil War. crucial point in grain production when The Nation's farms produced enough the work must be completed quickly to food and fiber to satisfy the needs of save a crop from ruin. The reapers our growing population and to domi- patented by Obed Hussey in 1833 and nate our exports. Agricultural exports Cyrus H. McCormick in 1834 marked in 1865 were 82.6 percent in value of the transition from the hand to the our total exports. This percentage de- machine age of farming. clined slowly but did not fall below 50 Many other farm machines were in- percent until 1911. Both value and vented between 1830 and i860, and volume increased year to year, but the bases for other farm improvements less rapidly than other exports. were laid. Edmund Rufíin, sometimes called America's first soil scientist, had THE UNITED STATES was not alone in urged the chemical analysis of soil and increasing its total volume of agricul- the use of marl as early as 1821. His tural exports after 1865. work preceded that of Justus von Lie- Argentina, Australia, Canada, and big, the great German chemist who New Zealand became competitive published Chemistry in Its Applications with the United States in shipping VALLEY TO VALLEY, COUNTRY TO COUNTRY grain and livestock products to Europe, wheat and wool came to be the major although commercial agriculture be- enterprises. Both were produced for gan about a generation later than in export. The introduction of refrigera- America. The use of refrigeration in tion in 1882 opened new possibilities. steamships, beginning in the 1870's, Meat—beef, mutton, and lamb—was offered better opportunity to get live- shipped to England immediately. Ex- stock products to markets. ports of butter were large after 1900. Refrigerated ships gave Argentina Farming became a collection of spe- its opportunity to market fresh beef in cialized industries during the 20th England. Modern agriculture began century. in Argentina in 1856, with the arrival At about the same time New Zealand of 208 Swiss families. A considerable was developing as an agricultural na- flow of European immigration fol- tion, another country far to the north lowed. The immigrants established was opening its doors to Western civili- and developed the great cereal belt, zation. Japan in 1854 granted the and later the sugar, vineyard, cotton, United States minor trading conces- and fruit belts. Herd improvement, sions, a major departure from its pre- beginning about 1860, aided sheep and vious isolationism. At about the same cattle raising, which the Spanish time, the feudal system collapsed, and settlers had established. Japan began rapid economic growth. The manorial system, established in Concerned with its northern fron- Canada by the first French colonists, tiers, Japan determined to colonize was not abolished there until 1854. Hokkaido, an island that seemed to Agriculture thereafter developed more offer opportunity for agricultural de- rapidly in Quebec, particularly after velopment. The Japanese turned to dairying became profitable. The Civil America for help because weather con- War in the United States hastened the ditions on Hokkaido and in the North- transition from wheat growing to eastern United States were similar, mixed farming in Ontario. At about America led the world in the use of the same time, wheat growing began farm machinery, and the United States in the Red River Valley and then was isolated from any international spread slowly over the prairie prov- controversy. inces. The creation of a variety of The Japanese Government hired wheat known as Marquis, by Sir Horace Capron, Commissioner of the Charles E. Saunders, and its distribu- newly established Department of Agri- tion to Canadian farmers beginning in culture, to head a mission to Japan. 1908, was a triumph for Canadian He arrived in Japan in the fall of 1871 scientific endeavor. with his group and remained there 4 Wool dominated exports from Aus- years. Despite difficulties, which at tralia throughout the 19th century. It times seemed insurmountable, the mis- more than quadrupled in value from sion got a new, modern agricultural 1861 to 1890. During this period, mil- development underway in Hokkaido lions of acres of pasture were fenced, and had much to do with paving the which led to better breeding, conserva- way for better farming in Japan. tion of the soil, and greater production The Capron mission was responsible per man-hour. for establishing the first railway in European farming was not estab- Japan and encouraging the develop- lished in New Zealand until after 1840. ment of waterpower. By the First The outbreak of war with the native World War, Japan was a modern in- Maoris in 1859, which led to the send- dustrial nation. An authority on the ing of British troops to the islands, and economic history of Japan has said: the discovery of gold in 1861 meant a ''. . . it was the expansion of Japan's great rise in population and a larger basic economy—agriculture and small- market for food products. Over time. scale industry built on traditional lO THE YEARBOOK OF AGRICULTURE 1964 foundations—^which accounted for most in Germany about i860 and was of the growth of national productivity quickly adopted in France. and income during this period." A Swede, Carl de Laval, in 1878 Russia, Japan's rival in the Far East invented the centrifugal cream separa- during the second half of the 19th cen- tor, the most important of numerous tury, liberated its serfs in 1861 and inventions that helped dairying. An gave them allotments of land, admin- American, Stephen M. Babcock, in istered through a communal system. 1890 devised a test for measuring the This accelerated a process of rural quantity of fat in milk. Milking ma- transformation, even though Russia chines were patented in several coun- suffered a great famine in 1891-1892. tries during this period and came into The period saw the encouragement of wide use after the First World War. cotton growing in Turkestan and a Taken together, these developments sizable movement of peasants from provided the technological basis for European Russia into Siberia. The modern dairy farming. Russian Government made an effort to American agriculture was approach- cultivate varieties of cotton that were ing a balance with the rest of the suited to the climate of Turkestan and economy as the 20th century began. produced the finest staple. It kept in Most farmers produced for the market. close touch with the U.S. Department The prices they received for their of Agriculture, asking for samples of products in relation to prices they paid American cottonseed, information re- for other products seemed fair. Horse- garding types of staple, and advice in drawn machinery had replaced much general. It was also cooperative in hand labor on farms. Steam engines offering the United States its experi- were used for plowing and threshing ence with American cotton, as well as in parts of the West. Inventors were with wheat and other crops that were at work improving tractors with of interest to American growers. internal combustion engines. Lime and chemical fertilizer were widely used THESE VIGNETTES indicate that the in the South and East. Draining in years between 1850 and the First some areas and irrigation in others World War were years of agricultural made land more productive. The change and development in many agricultural colleges and the Depart- parts of the world. In other areas, ment of Agriculture had brought particularly those with large popula- science to bear on farming, even tions held in colonial status, there was though farmers were sometimes slow little or no advance. to adopt their recommendations. The We should bear in mind, however, establishment of the cooperative ex- that technological improvement in tension service in 1914 meant that a any aspect of farming may draw on college-trained county agent carried experience from several sources. the results of research to farmers. Several European nations, for exam- The First World War caused major ple, made substantial contributions dislocations in European agriculture during the 19th century to the devel- for nearly 6 years. The food and fiber opment of dairying. exporting nations found demand for Major breeds of dairy cattle devel- their products virtually unlimited. oped in Europe included the Ayrshire Prices rose, and many individual in southwestern Scotland, the Guern- farmers in commercial farming areas sey and Jersey in the Channel Islands, throughout the world expanded their the Holstein-Friesian and the Dutch- operations. Demand continued for Belted in the Netherlands, and the about 2 years after the end of the war Brown Swiss in Switzerland. in 1918. By the summer of 1920, The modern silo for storing green European agriculture had made a forage for winter use had its beginning remarkable recovery, and some Euro- VALLEY TO VALLEY, COUNTRY TO COUNTRY II pean countries embarked upon a widespread use of cover crops and program of agricultural self-sufficiency. other conservation practices and im- World prices of many farm products proved varieties, the adoption of hy- declined sharply as a result. brid corn, a better balanced feeding of World agriculture, at least among livestock, the more efTective control of the countries producing surpluses for insects and disease, and the use of export, suffered chronic depression chemicals for such purposes as weed- during the twenties and early thirties. killers and defoliants were part of the Some countries developed plans to aid technological revolution. their farmers by influencing foreign Artificial breeding, which drew on marketing. In a few instances, where earlier experiences in the Soviet Union one controlled a substantial part of the and Denmark, brought major changes supply of a commodity, attempts were to the dairy industry. Such chemicals made to control exports and thus raise as gibberellic acid, a plant growth reg- prices. ulator first discovered in Japan, were Several nations, during the depres- placed on the market. sion years, began to make particular Hybrid sorghums, chickens, and pigs, efforts to help their farmers by extend- following the great success of hybrid ing credit, supporting farm prices, corn, brought our production to new or establishing production control heights. schemes. The successful development of freez- The worldwide agricultural depres- ing food for retail sale, beginning be- sion saw the continued development of fore the First World War, and the agricultural technology, even though commercial adoption of freeze-drying most farmers had neither the capital in the early sixties improved food mar- nor the financial incentive to change keting. Sales of partially processed and their methods. ready-to-eat convenience foods, many Agricultural experiment stations in of them frozen, increased markedly all parts of the world continued to after the war. Attractive packaging, develop better yielding plants and ani- control of quality, and improvements mals and to find new means to combat in supermarkets helped give Americans diseases and insects. Industry improved a constantly improving diet. the tractor and other machines. Similar advances might be cata- The Second World War provided the loged for most of western Europe the price incentives for farmers to in- and Canada, Australia, New Zealand, crease production in every way possi- Japan, and other countries. Yet the ble, mainly by the adoption of the agricultural potentialities of many na- latest advances in agricultural tech- tions are still underdeveloped. nology. There was no postwar defla- One of the great opportunities in tion like that following the first war. agriculture today is to help them take Continued postwar demand for food part in this technological revolution in many parts of the world and price through the greater development of supports of one type or another for their own natural and human re- farm products kept prices up. The sources and greater participation in result was great technological advance world trade. in much of the world. In the United States, the revolution WAYNE D. RASMUSSEN became chief of included widespread progress in mech- the Agricultural History Branchy Economic anization, with gasoline tractors dis- Research Service in 1961. He edited placing horses and mules. The com- Readings in the History of American mercial production of cottonpickers Agriculture and was coauthor of Cen- after the war completed the mecha- tury of Service: The First 100 Years of nization of cotton production. the United States Department of Greater use of lime and fertilizer, the Agriculture.