Kind of Fate: Agricultural Change in Virginia, 1861-1920

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Purdue University Press, 2002 - 256 pages
A Kind Of Fate: Agricultural Change In Virginia, 1861-1920 surveys farming in Virginia through the experiences of Jacob Manning and his son James. We read about their individual struggles, the impact of the Civil War, contrasts between farming and country life, Jacob having to farm through the harsh times of the Civil War, his son James farming experiences during a post-war time of rising prosperity. Author Terry Sharrer (curator of health sciences at the Smithsonian Institutions, Washington, D.C.) focuses on the changes in agriculture and its shift from crop-focused to livestock-dominated farming.

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Contents

III
3
V
5
VI
23
VII
30
VIII
37
IX
38
X
49
XI
83
XVII
147
XVIII
148
XIX
163
XX
170
XXI
177
XXII
178
XXIII
186
XXIV
204

XII
84
XIII
95
XIV
111
XV
114
XVI
135
XXV
213
XXVI
221
XXVII
243
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Page xiv - ... appeared to shrink into the "old fields," where scrub pine or oak succeeded broomsedge and sassafras as inevitably as autumn slipped into winter. Now and then a new start would be made. Some thrifty settler, a German Catholic, perhaps, who was trying his fortunes in a staunch Protestant community, would buy a mortgaged farm for a dollar an acre, and begin to experiment with suspicious, strange-smelling fertilizers. For a season or two his patch of ground would respond to the unusual treatment...

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