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 vii
... Soil Fertility " Crops and Crises 3. TOIL AND TROUBLE Life in the Country CONTENTS 95 588 83 84 Debt , Taxes , and Despair 4. PROFESSING CHANGE 111 Growing Knowledge : The Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station 114 Reaching the ...
... Soil Fertility " Crops and Crises 3. TOIL AND TROUBLE Life in the Country CONTENTS 95 588 83 84 Debt , Taxes , and Despair 4. PROFESSING CHANGE 111 Growing Knowledge : The Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station 114 Reaching the ...
Page xvi
... soil , centered approach to farming that agricultural experts , such as Edmund Ruffin , had long espoused . The essence of this was the application of the germ theory of disease to everyday practice on the farm . Among other things ...
... soil , centered approach to farming that agricultural experts , such as Edmund Ruffin , had long espoused . The essence of this was the application of the germ theory of disease to everyday practice on the farm . Among other things ...
Page xix
... soils meant poor drainage , though they did not know soil fertility also fell as aerobic organisms denitrified wet fields , Further north , on the " necks , " as Tidewater people called the river peninsulas , the drainage pattern ...
... soils meant poor drainage , though they did not know soil fertility also fell as aerobic organisms denitrified wet fields , Further north , on the " necks , " as Tidewater people called the river peninsulas , the drainage pattern ...
Page xx
... soil and the growth of harmful microorganisms and insects went on nearly year round . Also , because of the area's high humidity , soils tended to be strongly acidic,7 English farming in America had started in Tidewater Virginia , two ...
... soil and the growth of harmful microorganisms and insects went on nearly year round . Also , because of the area's high humidity , soils tended to be strongly acidic,7 English farming in America had started in Tidewater Virginia , two ...
Page xxi
... soils were predominantly igneous and metamorphic rocks , rather than sedimentary — principally , granites , gneisses , and schists . As these rocks eroded , their tiny particles tended to accumulate as clays . Such soil was rich in ...
... soils were predominantly igneous and metamorphic rocks , rather than sedimentary — principally , granites , gneisses , and schists . As these rocks eroded , their tiny particles tended to accumulate as clays . Such soil was rich in ...
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...