Kind of Fate: Agricultural Change in Virginia, 1861-1920Purdue 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. |
From inside the book
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Page xii
... , When the war started , Jacob enlisted in the Loudoun Guards ( Company C , 17th Virginia Infantry ) , In the spring of the following year , he became a captain in the Signal Corps , no doubt because xii Introduction.
... , When the war started , Jacob enlisted in the Loudoun Guards ( Company C , 17th Virginia Infantry ) , In the spring of the following year , he became a captain in the Signal Corps , no doubt because xii Introduction.
Page xv
... became immigrants to their own land , but never had " your tired , your poor , your huddled masses yearning to breathe free " reached a shore with less to start their lives — neither property , nor education , nor even legal marriages ...
... became immigrants to their own land , but never had " your tired , your poor , your huddled masses yearning to breathe free " reached a shore with less to start their lives — neither property , nor education , nor even legal marriages ...
Page xvi
... became the only south- ern state where tenants , black and white , were a minority . Many farm- ers used their rising income to invest in the equipment of a new capital- intensive , mechanized , and diversified style of farming . They ...
... became the only south- ern state where tenants , black and white , were a minority . Many farm- ers used their rising income to invest in the equipment of a new capital- intensive , mechanized , and diversified style of farming . They ...
Page xix
... became worse , as rain , particularly from summertime thunderstorms , tore into the rela- tively soft ground , Cleared land suffered grave damage , but even wood- land soils eroded , as the stands of oak , pine , cedar , poplar ...
... became worse , as rain , particularly from summertime thunderstorms , tore into the rela- tively soft ground , Cleared land suffered grave damage , but even wood- land soils eroded , as the stands of oak , pine , cedar , poplar ...
Page xx
... became a royal colony , tobacco remained its leading economic indicator , as both an export commodity and the principal factor in real estate prices , Land speculation became every planter's second occupation , and the combi- nation ...
... became a royal colony , tobacco remained its leading economic indicator , as both an export commodity and the principal factor in real estate prices , Land speculation became every planter's second occupation , and the combi- nation ...
Common terms and phrases
acres Agri Agricultural Experiment Station Alwood American Agriculture animals army Augusta County Bailey became Blacksburg bovine Bureau bushels cattle Cavalry cedar-apple rust Census century Charlottesville Civil Commissioner of Agriculture commodity Company Confederate corn County cows crop cultural Cyclopedia of American dairy Department of Agriculture diphtheria Edmund Ruffin Education Experiment Station Bulletin farm farmers Federal feed field Fletcher freedmen fruit ginia glanders growers growing harvest History horses hundred Ibid improved insects John labor land livestock Loudoun Loudoun County Lynchburg milk million NARG Norfolk nutrients organism Pasteur pathogen peanut percent Piedmont Plant Diseases potatoes president problem production Report reprint Richmond Ruffin rural rust schools Science sharecropping Shenandoah Shenandoah Valley South Southampton County Southern Planter Tidewater tion tobacco tuberculosis typhoid U.S. Department University of Virginia University Press Valentine Museum Valley Virginia Agricultural Experiment Washington Westmoreland Davis wheat William Yearbook of Agriculture York
Popular passages
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...