Podcasts about agricultural history

On this day in 1913, the California Senate passed a law restricting the property ownership rights of Asian immigrants.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Before the advent of cardboard boxes, wooden crates were used to pack apples, pears and other iconic fruits of the Northwest to ship across the region and the nation. Up until the 1950s, the crates were adorned with elaborately illustrated labels bearing the name of the orchard that grew the fruit packed inside. These fruit crate labels reflect the histories of the growers, distributors, printers and artists involved with them from the late 19th to the mid-20th century. As such, they’re coveted by collectors across the Northwest and country, as the Capital Press recently reported. Carlos Pelley is an archivist for the Yakima Valley Libraries. Mike Doty is a volunteer curator at the Yakima Valley Museum and a longtime fruit crate label collector. Thomas Hull is also a collector, and a history teacher at Davis High School in Yakima. They join us to talk about the history of the labels, which have fostered a community of collectors in the Pacific Northwest.

In the past few episodes and projects on Talk Ag To Me, we have been exploring the historical significance of agriculture. This episode does a great job of summarizing all of the major points we've been alluding to lately. Please enjoy our exploration of agriculture through the ages! Check Out Paul: Listen: anchor.fm/historyinmotionpodcast   Podcast:https://open.spotify.com/show/5ej5s8J5NJfF073RlIwpzf?si=a9610a6d12e64f3d  Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwCG_HdCJ--GYo0713eYaqA  Contact Us: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/talkagtome  Email: TalkAgToMe@gmail.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TalkAgToMe35  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkagtome/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TalkAg_ToMe Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXDTj5smg45bzFkaRDoAQ7A Anchor: https://anchor.fm/talk-ag-to-me --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/talk-ag-to-me/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/talk-ag-to-me/support

Rumi Forum, Interfaith Council of Metropolitan Washington, and Washington Theological Consortium presented the 4th Interfaith Leadership Forum: “Interfaith Engagement with the Environmental Crisis” on May 31, 2023. The program featured keynote speaker Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb, an interfaith panel, and an opportunity for small group dialogues. Keynote by: Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb, D.Min. started at Adat Shalom when the synagogue was only eight years old, and meeting at the JCC – he was still in rabbinic school, Founding Rabbi Sid was part-time, Shabbat morning services were every other week, and cell phones hardly existed. Upon ordination from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1997, he became its first full-time rabbi and has joyfully served here ever since. Rabbi Fred currently serves as Chair of the National Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life and is on the boards of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment and Interfaith Power and Light (The Regeneration Project). Fred has also been deeply engaged in social and racial justice (including Jews United for Justice), multi-faith (a past board member of the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington), and Israeli-progressive (J Street and more) efforts. Panelists: Sevim Kalyoncu: Growing up in Alabama surrounded by woods and creeks, Sevim Kalyoncu discovered early that her most direct connection with God came through nature. To this day, she still finds peace in natural surroundings and holds a deep concern regarding humankind's responsibility as vicegerent of the earth. She is involved with multiple local climate action groups and is dedicated to helping educate youth about the importance of environmental awareness for spiritual, mental, and physical well-being. She holds a B.S. from Georgetown and a master's degree from the University of Chicago and has many years of nonprofit experience in Washington, DC, and the San Francisco Bay Area. She is also a naturalist interpreter and a yoga instructor. Rev. Dr. Gilson Waldkoenig: Rev. Dr. Gilson Waldkoenig teaches methods for understanding ministry in context and applied theology rooted in the resilient grace of Christ. As Director of the Town and Country Church Institute (TCCI), Dr. Waldkoenig teaches courses in rural and Appalachian ministry and is sought out by synods, judicatories, and other seminaries for consultation and teaching. His research has included multiple-church ministries, environmental ministries, and a variety of other topics, all reflecting his practical theology of “means of grace and scenes of grace.” He belongs to St. James Lutheran Church in Gettysburg. His books include Cooperating Congregations and Symbiotic Community, The Lost Land, and his reviews appeared in Agricultural History, Journal of Appalachian Studies, Journal for Study of Religion, Nature & Culture, Christian Century, and others. Dr. Rajwant Singh: Dr. Rajwant Singh is the founder and President of EcoSikh, a global organization working on the climate crisis facing the planet. It has engaged the worldwide Sikh community to take action on environmental issues. He also co-founded the National Sikh Campaign, an initiative to inform Americans about the Sikh identity. Dr. Rajwant Singh is also the Chairman of the Sikh Council on Religion and Education (SCORE), an organization that has worked with the White House and the members of the United States Congress. He organized a large gathering of the Sikhs to interact with political and elected leaders at Capitol Hill. He was instrumental in organizing the first-ever celebration of Guru Nanak's birth anniversary at the White House in 2009. Kristin Barker: Kristin Barker is co-founder and director of One Earth Sangha, whose mission is cultivating a Buddhist response to ecological crises. She graduated from Spirit Rock's Community Dharma Leader program and now teaches with the Insight Meditation Community of Washington. As a co-founder of White Awake, Kristin has been supporting white people since 2011 with a Dharma approach to uprooting racism in ourselves and in our world. With a background in software engineering and environmental management, she has worked at several international environmental organizations. She is a GreenFaith Fellow and serves on the advisory board of Project Inside Out. Kristin was born and raised in northern New Mexico and currently lives in Washington, DC, the traditional lands of the Piscataway people. The Interfaith Leadership Forum (ILF) presented its 4th program during Days of Unity, entitled “Interfaith Engagement with the Environmental Crisis”. Rumi Forum and its partners were glad to collaborate with the Interfaith Council of Metropolitan Washington (IFCMW) for the 4th ILF, which coincides with their 6th Annual Days of Unity during the month of May 2023.

  In 1866 a gruesome murder on a rural farm in the centre of Scotland shocked the local community. With little clues to go on outside of a bloody axe, a boiled egg and a missing door key, the police would eventually be left having to rely heavily on a string of unreliable testimony to do their job, a factor that would go some way in creating what would wind up as Scotland's longest running cold case. SOURCES National Records of Scotland (1861) Perth Census. https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files//research/census-records/street-indexes/1861/1861-perth.pdf Paton, Chris (2012) The Mount Stewart Murder. The History Press, UK. Erikson, Arvel B. (1961) The Cattle Plague in England, 1865-1867. Agricultural History, Vol. 35, No. 2 (Apr., 1961), pp. 94-103. UK. Dundee Courier (1866) The Murder At Mount Stewart Near Perth. Dundee Courier, Mon 2 Apr 1866, p.2. Dundee, Scotland. Dundee Advertiser (1866) A Murder of a Most Atrocious... Dundee Advertiser, Mon 2 Apr 1866, p.2. Dundee, Scotland. Dundee Courier (1866) The Murder At Mount Stewart Near Perth. Dundee Courier, Thurs 5 Apr 1866, p.2. Dundee, Scotland. Perthshire Constitutional & Journal (1866) Proclamation. Reward of £100. Perthshire Constitutional & Journal. Thurs 12 April 1866, p.1. Perth, Scotland. Perthshire Advertiser (1866) The Mount Stewart Murder. Perthshire Advertiser, Thurs 26 July 1866, p.2. Perthshire, Scotland. Perthshire Advertiser (1867) Murder Near Bridge of Earn. Perthshire Advertiser, Thurs 11 Apr 1867, p.2. Perthshire, Scotland. ------- Click the link to hit up Vessi Footwear and use my code, DARKHISTORIES at checkout for 15% off your entire order! Free shipping to CA, US, AU,JP, TW, KR, SGP ------- For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: http://author.to/darkhistories Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9 Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories & Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/ Or you can contact us directly via email at contact@darkhistories.com or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017 Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that.

Neil Oatsvall hails from and resides on the East Coast but he spent over a decade landlocked in the middle of the country. He did his undergraduate work at the University of North Carolina in Asian Studies (Japanese language) and history, and received his doctorate in history from the University of Kansas. Currently, Neil teaches high school history at the Triangle Math and Science Academy in Cary, NC. He has published in various outlets, including Agricultural History, Environment and History, and Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies. His book manuscript, Atomic Environments: Nuclear Technologies, the Natural World, and Policymaking, 1945-1960, is forthcoming with the University of Alabama Press.

In this episode, our guest, Naomi Akogwu, talks about her research into agricultural history and how our modern methods came out of the agricultural revolution of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. She details mechanization and methodological improvements happening at the time, as well as the growth of agricultural colleges and dissemination of knowledge available. She also covers the challenges facing modern agriculture and how the rise of homesteading is giving some hope for the future. Intro Music: Zac Bell Transition Music: Papalin, 25 Norwegian Folk Songs and Dances, Op. 17 - 22. Cow Call - So Lokka Me Over Den Myra Exit Music: Jean Claude Hatungimana Cover Art: Emily Noble Day

Vicent Palermet is one of Ibiza's foremost experts on landscape history and traditional agricultural practices. We have a fascinating conversation where he describes the evolution of the rural landscape and agriculture since Bronze Age times. He also explains why agriculture has declined and his hopes for the future. Let's join Vicent at an ancient finca called Ses Hisendes de Cala de Hort where we sat in a field on logs next to a fire where he was clearing and burning scrub.

Common wheat is one of most important field crops around the world and has been for millennia. In an effort to bring together different museum sites, living history farms, the “Year on the Field” Project seeks to exchange knowledge about common wheat cultivation through the centuries and in different parts of the world. Sites and farms participating in the project will create a valuable database on different regional cultivation traditions, regional seed varieties and traction methods and enable deep networking on an international level, raising awareness and public interest in agriculture, its historical implications for the present and the future of food production.  

How do we culturally value nature? We talk things over and catch up with Patrick Holden - founder of The Sustainable Food Trust, Prof Ian Bradley - Cultural Historian and Isabelle Doussan - Legal Expert... Episode show notes: https://linktr.ee/prophets_wizards_pod

Christopher W. Shaw in conversation with Ralph Nader, discussing his newly released book "First Class: The U.S. Postal Service, Democracy, and the Corporate Threat," published by City Lights Books. This event was originally broadcast live via Zoom, hosted by Peter Maravelis and moderated by Katherine Isaac. Christopher W. Shaw is an author, historian, and policy analyst. He has a Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Berkeley, and is the author of "Money, Power, and the People: The American Struggle to Make Banking Democratic" (University of Chicago Press, 2019) and "Preserving the People's Post Office" (Essential Books, 2006). His research on the history of banking, money, labor, agriculture, social movements, and the postal system has been published in the following academic journals: Journal of Policy History, Journal of Social History, Agricultural History, Enterprise & Society, Kansas History, and Journalism History. Shaw was formerly a project director at the Center for Study of Responsive Law. He has worked on a number of policy issues, including the privatization of government services, health and safety regulations, and electoral reform. He has appeared in such media outlets as the Associated Press, National Public Radio, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, New York Post, Village Voice, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Buffalo News, among others. Shaw lives in Berkeley, CA. Named by The Atlantic as one of the hundred most influential figures in American history, and by Time and Life magazines as one of the most influential Americans of the twentieth century, Ralph Nader has helped us drive safer cars, eat healthier food, breathe better air, drink cleaner water, and work in safer environments for more than four decades. Nader's recent books include "Breaking Through Power" with City Lights, "Unstoppable," and "The Good Fight." Nader writes a syndicated column, has his own radio show, and gives lectures and interviews year round. Katherine Isaac is the Executive Director of the Debs-Jones-Douglass Institute (DJDI) where she advocates for the public good, including a strong and expanded public Postal Service. Previously, Isaac coordinated the Campaign for Postal Banking and A Grand Alliance to Save Our Public Postal Service at the American Postal Workers Union. She currently serves as Board Treasurer of the Global Labor Justice/International Labor Rights Forum. Isaac is the author of "Civics for Democracy: A Journey for Teachers and Students." Sponsored by the City Lights Foundation.

This episode of the New Books in Economic and Business History is an interview with Dr. Shane Hamilton, Senior Lecturer in Management at The York Management School, University of York. There he teaches Strategy and Business Humanities. He is the author of Trucking Country: The Road to America's Wal-Mart Economy (Princeton, 2008) and he is associate editor of Enterprise & Society and co-editor of the book series American Business, Politics, and Society of the University of Pennsylvania Press. He has published articles on food and agribusiness in different journals such as the Technology & Culture, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, History of Retailing and Consumption, Enterprise & Society, Business History Review, and Agricultural History. Today our interview is centered around Professor Hamilton's latest book Supermarket USA, Food and Power in the Cold War Farms Race (published by Yale University Press in 2018).  America fought the Cold War in part through supermarkets—and the food economy pioneered then has helped shape the way we eat today Supermarkets were invented in the United States, and from the 1940s on they made their way around the world, often explicitly to carry American‘ style economic culture with them. This innovative history tells us how supermarkets were used as anticommunist weapons during the Cold War, and how that has shaped our current food system. The widespread appeal of supermarkets as weapons of free enterprise contributed to a “farms race” between the United States and the Soviet Union, as the superpowers vied to show that their contrasting approaches to food production and distribution were best suited to an abundant future. In the aftermath of the Cold War, U.S. food power was transformed into a global system of market power, laying the groundwork for the emergence of our contemporary world, in which transnational supermarkets operate as powerful institutions in a global food economy. I recommend you visit Dr. Shane Hamilton's website to learn about all his publications. Paula De La Cruz-Fernandez is a consultant, historian, and digital editor. New Books Network en español editor. Edita CEO. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/economics

This episode of the New Books in Economic and Business History is an interview with Dr. Shane Hamilton, Senior Lecturer in Management at The York Management School, University of York. There he teaches Strategy and Business Humanities. He is the author of Trucking Country: The Road to America's Wal-Mart Economy (Princeton, 2008) and he is associate editor of Enterprise & Society and co-editor of the book series American Business, Politics, and Society of the University of Pennsylvania Press. He has published articles on food and agribusiness in different journals such as the Technology & Culture, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, History of Retailing and Consumption, Enterprise & Society, Business History Review, and Agricultural History. Today our interview is centered around Professor Hamilton's latest book Supermarket USA, Food and Power in the Cold War Farms Race (published by Yale University Press in 2018).  America fought the Cold War in part through supermarkets—and the food economy pioneered then has helped shape the way we eat today Supermarkets were invented in the United States, and from the 1940s on they made their way around the world, often explicitly to carry American‘ style economic culture with them. This innovative history tells us how supermarkets were used as anticommunist weapons during the Cold War, and how that has shaped our current food system. The widespread appeal of supermarkets as weapons of free enterprise contributed to a “farms race” between the United States and the Soviet Union, as the superpowers vied to show that their contrasting approaches to food production and distribution were best suited to an abundant future. In the aftermath of the Cold War, U.S. food power was transformed into a global system of market power, laying the groundwork for the emergence of our contemporary world, in which transnational supermarkets operate as powerful institutions in a global food economy. I recommend you visit Dr. Shane Hamilton's website to learn about all his publications. Paula De La Cruz-Fernandez is a consultant, historian, and digital editor. New Books Network en español editor. Edita CEO. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

The pantry in our place on Willow Creek has an eight-foot shelf devoted to nothing but flours: bread flour, whole wheat, soft white biscuit flour, semolina for pasta, you name it. My capable wife has a wonderful way with dough, and I myself can turn out a pretty good stack of sourdough pancakes. Wheat holds pride of place in our culinary life, as on our family farm, and it seems not just bountiful but also wholly beneficent. Or so I thought, until I worked up the chapter on wheat for the Oxford Handbook of Agricultural History. As I said in a previous essay, wheat, as a cultivar, has agency in history, and it turns out not all of that history is benign.

Friday’s Guest: Dr. David Vail, Associate Professor of Agricultural History at the University of Nebraska at Kearney explaining the history of pandemics throughout history, especially the “Spanish Flu” of 1918, and its local connections. Each Weekday at 5:10 on KRVN’s “This Evening”, you can hear special edition reports and updates on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

In the 1870s, new farmsteads on the American plains were beset by enormous swarms of grasshoppers sweeping eastward from the Rocky Mountains. The insects were a disaster for vulnerable farmers, attacking in enormous numbers and devouring everything before them. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll describe the grasshopper plagues and the settlers' struggles against them. We'll also delve into urban legends and puzzle over some vanishing children. Intro: In 2001, a Washington earthquake drew a rose with a pendulum. In 2003, Japanese web designer Nobuyuki Kayahara created a curiously ambiguous animation. Sources for our feature on the grasshopper plagues: Jeffrey A. Lockwood, Locust: The Devastating Rise and Mysterious Disappearance of the Insect That Shaped the American Frontier, 2009. Annette Atkins, Harvest of Grief: Grasshopper Plagues and Public Assistance in Minnesota, 1873-78, 2003. Joanna Stratton, Pioneer Women, 2013. Samuel Clay Bassett, Buffalo County, Nebraska, and Its People, 1916. Harold E. Briggs, "Grasshopper Plagues and Early Dakota Agriculture, 1864-1876," Agricultural History 8:2 (April 1934), 51-63. Stephen Gross, "The Grasshopper Shrine at Cold Spring, Minnesota: Religion and Market Capitalism Among German-American Catholics," Catholic Historical Review 92:2 (April 2006), 215-243. Mary K. Fredericksen, "The Grasshopper Wars," The Palimpsest 62:5 (1981), 150-161. Cyrus C. Carpenter, "The Grasshopper Invasion," Annals of Iowa 4:6 (July 1900), 437-447. Chuck Lyons, "The Year of the Locust," Wild West 24:6 (April 2012), 44-49. Wiley Britton, "The Grasshopper Plague of 1866 in Kansas," Scientific Monthly 25:6 (December 1927), 540-545. G. Prosper Zaleski, "The Grasshopper Plague," Scientific American 33:9 (Aug. 28, 1875), 132. Thomas Hayden, "A Long-Ago Plague of Locusts," U.S. News & World Report 136:19 (May 31, 2004), 66. Kathie Bell, "The Grasshopper Plague," Dodge City Daily Globe, April 15, 2019. Lance Nixon, "Dakota Life: The Grasshopper and the Plow," [Topeka, Kan.] Capital Journal, Sept. 3, 2015. Frank Lee, "Grasshopper Chapel Inspires Faith, Prayer," St. Cloud [Minn.] Times, Aug. 6, 2005, C.1. "The Grasshopper Plague," New York Times, July 1, 1888. "The Grasshopper Plague," New York Times, Dec. 29, 1876. "The Bright Side of the Grasshopper Plague," New York Times, July 17, 1875. "The Grasshopper Plague," New York Times, Aug. 10, 1874. "The Locusts of the West," New York Times, July 14, 1874. "The Grasshopper Plague," New York Times, July 14, 1874. "The Grasshopper Plague," New York Times, July 10, 1874. "The Grasshoppers," New York Times, July 10, 1874. "A Plague of Grasshoppers," New York Times, June 22, 1874. Matthew Garcia, "Melanoplus spretus: Rocky Mountain Locust," Animal Diversity Web (accessed Feb. 22, 2020). R.L. Cartwright, "Grasshopper Plagues, 1873–1877," MNopedia, Nov. 17, 2011. Listener mail: "If you thinking about taking a NIGHT TRAIN in ITALY DON'T," Lonely Planet (accessed Feb. 14, 2020). "Urgently Need Advice About Trenitalia Sleeper Trains," Tripadvisor (accessed Feb. 14, 2020). Wikipedia, "Rick Steves" (accessed Feb. 14, 2020). "About Rick Steves," Rick Steves' Europe (accessed Feb. 14, 2020). "Sleeping on Trains," Rick Steves' Europe (accessed Feb. 14, 2020). John Hooper, "'Sleeping Gas' Thieves Target Super-Rich at Italian Billionaires' Resort," Guardian, Aug. 30, 2011. Wikipedia, "Jan Harold Brunvand" (accessed Feb. 14, 2020). Wikipedia, "Urban Legend" (accessed Feb. 14, 2020). Jan Harold Brunvand, The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings, 2003. Andrew Noymer, "The Transmission and Persistence of 'Urban Legends': Sociological Application of Age-Structured Epidemic Models," Journal of Mathematical Sociology 25:3 (2001), 299-323. Henry B. Dunn and Charlotte A. Allen, "Rumors, Urban Legends and Internet Hoaxes," Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association of Collegiate Marketing Educators, 2005. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Carbon Monoxide Poisoning: Frequently Asked Questions," March 21, 2018. Mayo Clinic, "Carbon Monoxide Poisoning," Oct. 16, 2019. This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listener Moxie LaBouche, who sent this corroborating link (warning -- this spoils the puzzle). You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on Google Podcasts, on Apple Podcasts, or via the RSS feed at https://futilitycloset.libsyn.com/rss. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- you can choose the amount you want to pledge, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

The history of agriculture can be viewed from many different perspectives including breeding crops with improved quality and yield characteristics, understanding fertilization requirements, challenges with water and weather patterns, but there are also historic social and political accounts that had profound effect on the landscape of today’s farming communities.  In this podcast,  Dr. Bonnie Lynn-Sherow shares a sobering look at some of the challenging  events uncovered by her research as she dug into changes that occurred in land ownership and farming practices of white settlers, Native Americans and African Americans on the United States great plains.   

Kevin Aucoin was born and raised on a small mixed farm in the Codroy Valley, on the west coast of the island of Newfoundland. He was introduced to the 4-H program as a teenager, which lead Kevin to an interest and training in the agricultural field. Kevin attended the Agricultural Colleges in Nova Scotia, Quebec and Ontario. He worked for some 35 years in the agricultural industry, becoming involved in farm and agricultural history in the mid 1980s. Kevin discusses his family background in farming, the formation of the Agricultural History Society, changes in technology, hay barracks and root cellars, agriculture in Labrador, and the Century Farms program.

What can we learn about a region from its farming history? Evergreen Heritage Center is creating an agricultural museum in a barn’s lower level stables. Janice Keene, the center’s Founder ---- Director, grew up on the farm at the center’s current location: she tells us more.

What can we learn about a region from its farming history? Evergreen Heritage Center is creating an agricultural museum in a barn’s lower level stables. Janice Keene, the center’s Founder & Director, grew up on the farm at the center’s current location: she tells us more.

Debra Reid, Curator of Agriculture and the Environment at The Henry Ford, joins host Sarah Uthoff to talk agriculture. Laura didn't just live in Little Houses, she lived on farms across the Midwest. But while people tend to have one idea about what farms were like in the past, it was really much more complicated. We'll examine how agriculture has helped the country through the fulfillment of the Homestead Act, what Wheat Culture was down to what variety Pa and Almanzo would have grown, and how agriculture changed between the late 19th century and the 1910s and 1920s when the Wilder farm Rocky Ridge was thriving. 

When we think about the U.S.-Mexico border, it’s hard not to think about the current immigration conflict and the contentious idea to build a wall. But the concept of a border wall isn’t new: proposals for walls have been made for more than 100 years. Our story starts in 1947, when a group of Texas ranchers demanded a fence along their state’s border with Mexico. Their motivation, though, was to stop an outbreak of a disease that struck farm animals. The response to the crisis was complicated and often messy. But in the end two countries came together to solve a complex predicament—instead of building a wall.  Credits Hosts: Alexis Pedrick and Elisabeth Berry Drago Senior Producer: Mariel Carr Producers: Rigoberto Hernandez, Alexis Pedrick Photo illustration by Jay Muhlin Music Music courtesy of the Audio Network. Research Notes Cervantes Sanchez, Juan, Roman Diaz, Ana Bertha Velazquez Camacho. “Una historia de vacunos y vacunas: Retrospectiva de la epizootia de Fiebre Aftosa en Mexico a 65 años de distancia.” Revista electronica de Veterinaria 11:B (May 2011). Clements, Kendrick. “Managing a National Crisis: The 1924 Foot-and-Mouth Disease Outbreak in California.” California History84:3 (Spring 2007).  Domel, Jessica. “USDA Expands Fever Tick Fencing in South Texas.” Texas Agriculture Daily, January 2, 2019.  Dusenberry William. “Foot and Mouth Disease in Mexico, 1946-1951.” Agricultural History 29:2 (April 1955).  Fox, M. Kel. “The Campaign against Foot-and-Mouth Disease in Mexico, 1946-1951.” Journal of Arizona History 38:1 (Spring 1997).  Ledbetter, John. “Fighting Foot-and-Mouth Disease in Mexico: Popular Protest against Diplomatic Decisions.” The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, 104:(3), (January 2001). Machado, A. Manuel. “Aftosa and the Mexican-United States Sanitary Convention of 1928.” Agricultural History 39:4. (October 1965).  Mendoza, Mary. "Battling Afotsa: North-to-South Migration Accross the U.S.-Mexico Border, 1947-1954." Journal of the West, 54:1 (Winter 2015).  Mendoza, Mary. “Treacherous Terrain: Racial Exclusion and Environmental Control at the U.S.-Mexico Border.” Environmental History 23 (January 2018).  Mulvey, Ruth. “Cattle Killing Turns Peon against Doctor.” The Washington Post, January 4, 1948.   Outbreak. Department of Agriculture, Office of Public Affairs. 1949. Proctor, George. “An American Tragedy in Mexico: The Death of Robert Proctor.” Journal of Arizona History38:4 (1997).   Sill Wickware, Francis. “Crusade in Mexico.” Collier’s, August 20, 1949.  “Texas Cattle Fever.” U.S.Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Library. 

The antebellum South was on the road to agricultural ruin, and the Civil War put a brick on the gas pedal. In Unredeemed Land: An Environmental History of Civil War and Emancipation in the Cotton South (Oxford University Press, 2018), a sweeping reassessment of some of the oldest questions in U.S. historiography, Erin Stewart Mauldin draws on ecology to help her offer a fresh, powerful explanation for why a region that produced so much wealth for centuries became characterized by widespread poverty in the late nineteenth century. She argues that cotton plantations were hardly ecologically sustainable enterprises, yet their habits of shifting cultivation of staple crops and free-range livestock husbandry were better suited to the region’s nutrient-poor soils and oppressive climate than the prevailing land-use practices of northern farmers. But when the war came, the crisis southern farmers had kept in the offing arrived quickly at their shores. Both armies sustained themselves by emptying the South’s granaries, devouring its animals, and razings its forests and fences. Cotton agriculture would never be the same. That is partly because the resources needed to restore it were gone, but also because freed people would not consent to returning to working in gangs on operations large enough to resume shifting cultivation and, when renting or sharecropping fragments of former plantations, refused landowner’s demands that they labor under contract after harvest to maintain the ecological integrity of someone else’s property. So the region turned to growing more cotton in more places and more intensively than before the war and depending on costly fertilizers to do so. Subsistence practices vanished, migrants fled to the cities, and debt ruled the land. Erin Stewart Mauldin is Assistant Professor of History at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg. She is book review editor of Agricultural History and the co-editor of A Companion to Global Environmental History (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012). Brian Hamilton is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison where he is Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The antebellum South was on the road to agricultural ruin, and the Civil War put a brick on the gas pedal. In Unredeemed Land: An Environmental History of Civil War and Emancipation in the Cotton South (Oxford University Press, 2018), a sweeping reassessment of some of the oldest questions in U.S. historiography, Erin Stewart Mauldin draws on ecology to help her offer a fresh, powerful explanation for why a region that produced so much wealth for centuries became characterized by widespread poverty in the late nineteenth century. She argues that cotton plantations were hardly ecologically sustainable enterprises, yet their habits of shifting cultivation of staple crops and free-range livestock husbandry were better suited to the region's nutrient-poor soils and oppressive climate than the prevailing land-use practices of northern farmers. But when the war came, the crisis southern farmers had kept in the offing arrived quickly at their shores. Both armies sustained themselves by emptying the South's granaries, devouring its animals, and razings its forests and fences. Cotton agriculture would never be the same. That is partly because the resources needed to restore it were gone, but also because freed people would not consent to returning to working in gangs on operations large enough to resume shifting cultivation and, when renting or sharecropping fragments of former plantations, refused landowner's demands that they labor under contract after harvest to maintain the ecological integrity of someone else's property. So the region turned to growing more cotton in more places and more intensively than before the war and depending on costly fertilizers to do so. Subsistence practices vanished, migrants fled to the cities, and debt ruled the land. Erin Stewart Mauldin is Assistant Professor of History at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg. She is book review editor of Agricultural History and the co-editor of A Companion to Global Environmental History (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012). Brian Hamilton is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison where he is

The antebellum South was on the road to agricultural ruin, and the Civil War put a brick on the gas pedal. In Unredeemed Land: An Environmental History of Civil War and Emancipation in the Cotton South (Oxford University Press, 2018), a sweeping reassessment of some of the oldest questions in U.S. historiography, Erin Stewart Mauldin draws on ecology to help her offer a fresh, powerful explanation for why a region that produced so much wealth for centuries became characterized by widespread poverty in the late nineteenth century. She argues that cotton plantations were hardly ecologically sustainable enterprises, yet their habits of shifting cultivation of staple crops and free-range livestock husbandry were better suited to the region’s nutrient-poor soils and oppressive climate than the prevailing land-use practices of northern farmers. But when the war came, the crisis southern farmers had kept in the offing arrived quickly at their shores. Both armies sustained themselves by emptying the South’s granaries, devouring its animals, and razings its forests and fences. Cotton agriculture would never be the same. That is partly because the resources needed to restore it were gone, but also because freed people would not consent to returning to working in gangs on operations large enough to resume shifting cultivation and, when renting or sharecropping fragments of former plantations, refused landowner’s demands that they labor under contract after harvest to maintain the ecological integrity of someone else’s property. So the region turned to growing more cotton in more places and more intensively than before the war and depending on costly fertilizers to do so. Subsistence practices vanished, migrants fled to the cities, and debt ruled the land. Erin Stewart Mauldin is Assistant Professor of History at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg. She is book review editor of Agricultural History and the co-editor of A Companion to Global Environmental History (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012). Brian Hamilton is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison where he is Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The antebellum South was on the road to agricultural ruin, and the Civil War put a brick on the gas pedal. In Unredeemed Land: An Environmental History of Civil War and Emancipation in the Cotton South (Oxford University Press, 2018), a sweeping reassessment of some of the oldest questions in U.S. historiography, Erin Stewart Mauldin draws on ecology to help her offer a fresh, powerful explanation for why a region that produced so much wealth for centuries became characterized by widespread poverty in the late nineteenth century. She argues that cotton plantations were hardly ecologically sustainable enterprises, yet their habits of shifting cultivation of staple crops and free-range livestock husbandry were better suited to the region’s nutrient-poor soils and oppressive climate than the prevailing land-use practices of northern farmers. But when the war came, the crisis southern farmers had kept in the offing arrived quickly at their shores. Both armies sustained themselves by emptying the South’s granaries, devouring its animals, and razings its forests and fences. Cotton agriculture would never be the same. That is partly because the resources needed to restore it were gone, but also because freed people would not consent to returning to working in gangs on operations large enough to resume shifting cultivation and, when renting or sharecropping fragments of former plantations, refused landowner’s demands that they labor under contract after harvest to maintain the ecological integrity of someone else’s property. So the region turned to growing more cotton in more places and more intensively than before the war and depending on costly fertilizers to do so. Subsistence practices vanished, migrants fled to the cities, and debt ruled the land. Erin Stewart Mauldin is Assistant Professor of History at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg. She is book review editor of Agricultural History and the co-editor of A Companion to Global Environmental History (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012). Brian Hamilton is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison where he is Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The antebellum South was on the road to agricultural ruin, and the Civil War put a brick on the gas pedal. In Unredeemed Land: An Environmental History of Civil War and Emancipation in the Cotton South (Oxford University Press, 2018), a sweeping reassessment of some of the oldest questions in U.S. historiography, Erin Stewart Mauldin draws on ecology to help her offer a fresh, powerful explanation for why a region that produced so much wealth for centuries became characterized by widespread poverty in the late nineteenth century. She argues that cotton plantations were hardly ecologically sustainable enterprises, yet their habits of shifting cultivation of staple crops and free-range livestock husbandry were better suited to the region’s nutrient-poor soils and oppressive climate than the prevailing land-use practices of northern farmers. But when the war came, the crisis southern farmers had kept in the offing arrived quickly at their shores. Both armies sustained themselves by emptying the South’s granaries, devouring its animals, and razings its forests and fences. Cotton agriculture would never be the same. That is partly because the resources needed to restore it were gone, but also because freed people would not consent to returning to working in gangs on operations large enough to resume shifting cultivation and, when renting or sharecropping fragments of former plantations, refused landowner’s demands that they labor under contract after harvest to maintain the ecological integrity of someone else’s property. So the region turned to growing more cotton in more places and more intensively than before the war and depending on costly fertilizers to do so. Subsistence practices vanished, migrants fled to the cities, and debt ruled the land. Erin Stewart Mauldin is Assistant Professor of History at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg. She is book review editor of Agricultural History and the co-editor of A Companion to Global Environmental History (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012). Brian Hamilton is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison where he is Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The antebellum South was on the road to agricultural ruin, and the Civil War put a brick on the gas pedal. In Unredeemed Land: An Environmental History of Civil War and Emancipation in the Cotton South (Oxford University Press, 2018), a sweeping reassessment of some of the oldest questions in U.S. historiography, Erin Stewart Mauldin draws on ecology to help her offer a fresh, powerful explanation for why a region that produced so much wealth for centuries became characterized by widespread poverty in the late nineteenth century. She argues that cotton plantations were hardly ecologically sustainable enterprises, yet their habits of shifting cultivation of staple crops and free-range livestock husbandry were better suited to the region’s nutrient-poor soils and oppressive climate than the prevailing land-use practices of northern farmers. But when the war came, the crisis southern farmers had kept in the offing arrived quickly at their shores. Both armies sustained themselves by emptying the South’s granaries, devouring its animals, and razings its forests and fences. Cotton agriculture would never be the same. That is partly because the resources needed to restore it were gone, but also because freed people would not consent to returning to working in gangs on operations large enough to resume shifting cultivation and, when renting or sharecropping fragments of former plantations, refused landowner’s demands that they labor under contract after harvest to maintain the ecological integrity of someone else’s property. So the region turned to growing more cotton in more places and more intensively than before the war and depending on costly fertilizers to do so. Subsistence practices vanished, migrants fled to the cities, and debt ruled the land. Erin Stewart Mauldin is Assistant Professor of History at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg. She is book review editor of Agricultural History and the co-editor of A Companion to Global Environmental History (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012). Brian Hamilton is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison where he is Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The antebellum South was on the road to agricultural ruin, and the Civil War put a brick on the gas pedal. In Unredeemed Land: An Environmental History of Civil War and Emancipation in the Cotton South (Oxford University Press, 2018), a sweeping reassessment of some of the oldest questions in U.S. historiography, Erin Stewart Mauldin draws on ecology to help her offer a fresh, powerful explanation for why a region that produced so much wealth for centuries became characterized by widespread poverty in the late nineteenth century. She argues that cotton plantations were hardly ecologically sustainable enterprises, yet their habits of shifting cultivation of staple crops and free-range livestock husbandry were better suited to the region’s nutrient-poor soils and oppressive climate than the prevailing land-use practices of northern farmers. But when the war came, the crisis southern farmers had kept in the offing arrived quickly at their shores. Both armies sustained themselves by emptying the South’s granaries, devouring its animals, and razings its forests and fences. Cotton agriculture would never be the same. That is partly because the resources needed to restore it were gone, but also because freed people would not consent to returning to working in gangs on operations large enough to resume shifting cultivation and, when renting or sharecropping fragments of former plantations, refused landowner’s demands that they labor under contract after harvest to maintain the ecological integrity of someone else’s property. So the region turned to growing more cotton in more places and more intensively than before the war and depending on costly fertilizers to do so. Subsistence practices vanished, migrants fled to the cities, and debt ruled the land. Erin Stewart Mauldin is Assistant Professor of History at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg. She is book review editor of Agricultural History and the co-editor of A Companion to Global Environmental History (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012). Brian Hamilton is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison where he is 

In 1902, chemist Harvey Wiley launched a unique experiment to test the safety of food additives. He recruited a group of young men and fed them meals laced with chemicals to see what the effects might be. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll describe Wiley's "poison squad" and his lifelong crusade for food safety. We'll also follow some garden paths and puzzle over some unwelcome weight-loss news. Intro: In 1887, an inadvertent dot in a telegram cost wool dealer Frank Primrose $20,000. For 25 years, two Minnesota brothers-in-law exchanged a weaponized pair of moleskin pants. Harvey Washington Wiley's poison squad dined in formal clothing and wrote their own inspirational slogan. Sources for our feature: Bernard A. Weisberger, "Doctor Wiley and His Poison Squad," American Heritage 47:1 (February/March 1996). Oscar E. Anderson Jr., The Health of a Nation: Harvey W. Wiley and the Fight for Pure Food, 1958. Paul M. Wax, "Elixirs, Diluents, and the Passage of the 1938 Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act," Annals of Internal Medicine 122:6 (March 15, 1995), 456-461. James Harvey Young, "Food and Drug Regulation Under the USDA, 1906-1940," Agricultural History 64:2 (Spring 1990), 134-142. Cornelius C. Regier, "The Struggle for Federal Food and Drugs Legislation," Law and Contemporary Problems 1:1 (December 1933), 3-15. Donna J. Wood, "The Strategic Use of Public Policy: Business Support for the 1906 Food and Drug Act," Business History Review 59:3 (Autumn 1985), 403-432. E. Pendleton Herring, "The Balance of Social Forces in the Administration of the Pure Food and Drug Act," Social Forces 13:3 (March 1935), 358-366. Carol Lewis and Suzanne White Junod, "The 'Poison Squad' and the Advent of Food and Drug Regulation," FDA Consumer 36:6 (November-December 2002), 12-15. Mike Oppenheim, "Food Fight," American History 53:4 (October 2018), 68. Bette Hileman, "'Poison Squads' Tested Chemical Preservatives," Chemical & Engineering News 84:38 (Sept. 18, 2006). Wallace F. Janssen, "The Story of the Laws Behind the Labels," FDA Consumer 15:5 (June 1981), 32-45. G.R. List, "Giants From the Past: Harvey W. Wiley (1844-1930)," Inform 16:2 (February 2005), 111-112. Bruce Watson, "The Poison Squad: An Incredible History," Esquire, June 27, 2013. Deborah Blum, "Bring Back the Poison Squad," Slate, March 2, 2011. Lance Gay, "A Century Ago, the Federal Government Launched One of Its Most Unusual and Controversial Investigations," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dec. 30, 2002, A-8. "Harvey W. Wiley: Pioneer Consumer Activist," FDA Consumer 40:1, (January-February 2006), 34-35. "Harvey Washington Wiley," Science History Institute, Jan. 10, 2018. Karen Olsson, "We Must Eat, Drink and (Still) Be Wary," Washington Post, Sept. 6, 1998, C01. O.K. Davis, "The Case of Dr. Wiley," Hampton Columbian Magazine 27:4 (October 1911), 469-481. A.A. Langdon, "Food Expert Defends Borax," What-to-Eat 22:3 (March 1907), 91-92. "To Investigate Wiley's Food Squad Methods," National Provisioner 36:2 (Jan. 12, 1907), 1. "Letter Box," Pharmaceutical Era 37:22 (May 30, 1907), 514. "The Case of Dr. Wiley," American Food Journal 4:2, Feb. 15, 1909, 16. "Food Law's Anniversary," New York Times, June 30, 1908. "Wiley's Foes Think They've Beaten Him," New York Times, Dec. 29, 1908. H.H. Langdon, "Why Wiley Is Criticised; His Radical Views Said to Justify Tests by the National Commission," New York Times, April 7, 1907. "Benzoate Indorsed; Wiley Loses Fight," New York Times, Aug. 27, 1909. "Health Rather Than Money," New York Times, Aug. 21, 1910. "Germans Verified Wiley Poison Tests," New York Times, Aug. 19, 1911. "Forbidden Fruit," New York Times, Oct. 11, 1911. "Pure Food in One State Is Poison in Another," New York Times, Jan. 25, 1914. "Dr. H.W. Wiley Dies, Pure-Food Expert," New York Times, July 1, 1930. Listener mail: Listener Rob Emich discovered Spring-Heeled Jack London-Style Porter in Cape Cod last month (see Episode 34). Brittany Hope Flamik, "Australia's Endangered Quolls Get Genetic Boost From Scientists," New York Times, July 26, 2018. April Reese, "Ecologists Try to Speed Up Evolution to Save Australian Marsupial From Toxic Toads," Nature, July 23, 2018. Jesse Thompson and Liz Trevaskis, "Questions Over Quarantined Astell Island Quolls Who Lost Their Fear of Predators," ABC Radio Darwin, Aug. 9, 2018. Wikipedia, "Garden-Path Sentence" (accessed Aug. 17, 2018). "Garden Path Sentences," Fun With Words (accessed Aug. 17, 2018). BBC Sound Effects. Dave Lawrence, "RNN of BBC Sound Effects," Aardvark Zythum, Aug. 2, 2018. Dave Lawrence, "More Sound Effects," Aardvark Zythum, Aug. 3, 2018. This week's lateral thinking puzzle was contributed by listener David Palmer. You can listen using the player above, download this episode directly, or subscribe on Google Podcasts, on Apple Podcasts, or via the RSS feed at https://futilitycloset.libsyn.com/rss. Please consider becoming a patron of Futility Closet -- you can choose the amount you want to pledge, and we've set up some rewards to help thank you for your support. You can also make a one-time donation on the Support Us page of the Futility Closet website. Many thanks to Doug Ross for the music in this episode. If you have any questions or comments you can reach us at podcast@futilitycloset.com. Thanks for listening!

Air Date: 3/16/2018 Today we take a look at the catastrophic point where cutting taxes, racism, capitalism, immigration policy and our punitive-rather-than-rehabilitative criminal justice system all meet Be part of the show! Leave a message at 202-999-3991 Become a member and enjoy ad-free episodes and bonus content! Visit: https://www.patreon.com/BestOfTheLeft Show Notes Ch. 1: Opening Theme: Loving Acoustic Instrumental by John Douglas Orr  Ch. 2: Act 1: Targeting minority communities as sources of revenue through law enforcement - Leid Stories - Air Date 8-25-15 Ch. 3: Song 1:  Lord Weasel - Molerider Ch. 4: Act 2: The costs of incarceration for those least able to pay - CounterSpin (@FAIRmediawatch) - Air Date 9-30-16 Ch. 5: Song 2:  One Little Triumph - Piano Mover Ch. 6: Act 3: Lauren Brooke, author of Inside Private Prisons - Off Kilter - Air Date 11-9-17 Ch. 7: Song 3:  Dirtbike Lovers - Desert Orchard Ch. 8: Act 4: Revenge or Reform: The Penal Challenge - Progressive Faith Sermons w @RevDrRay - Air Date 6-11-17 Ch. 9: Song 4:  Neil Takes Two - Studio J Ch. 10: Act 5: What They Won't Tell You About The Fires In California - @RedactedTonight with @LeeCamp - Air Date 10-18-17 Ch. 11: Song 5:  Donder - Darby Ch. 12: Act 6: LA Sheriff Whines Because 'Good' Prison Laborers Are Getting Released - Majority Report (@MajorityFM) - Air Date: 10-14-17 Ch. 13: Song 6:  Heather - Migration Ch. 14: Act 7: Slave labor in our prisons - Off Kilter - Air Date 10-20-17 Ch. 15: Song 7:  A Burst of Light - Delray Ch. 16: Act 8: Support #OperationPUSH & Join Juneteenth 2018 Call to End Prison Slavery via @IWW_IWOC - Best of the Left Activism Voicemails Ch. 17: Disputing the horseshoe fallacy - Eduardo Voicemail Music: Low Key Lost Feeling Electro by Alex Stinnent Ch. 18: Final comments on DACA, immigration policy, Japanese internment, prison labor and agribusiness Sarah Taber's Twitter thread on Dreamers & the Agricultural History of Japanese Internment Camps BONUS CLIP: Hard times (still) in the fields - Jim @HightowerNews - Air Date 3-14-18 Help fight climate change! Donate to Jay's Climate Ride fundraiser! Closing Music: Upbeat Laid Back Indie Rock by Alex Stinnent (Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions) Activism: TAKE ACTION Support Operation PUSH - Incarcerated Worker’s Organizing Committee Support Juneteenth 2018 Call to End Prison Slavery - Fight Toxic Prisons Other Resources: Check out Free Alabama Movement’s “ALABAMA'S EDUCATION, REHABILITATION, AND RE-ENTRY PREPAREDNESS BILL" Check out ACLU New Jersey’s “A Vision to End Mass Incarceration in New Jersey” EDUCATE YOURSELF Prisoner Rights Advocates Rally Against Visitation Cutbacks In Florida Prisons (WUFT) Both Red and Blue States Rely on Prison Labor (via The American Prospect) Prison labour is a billion-dollar industry, with uncertain returns for inmates (The Economist) The NCAA Says Student-Athletes Shouldn’t Be Paid Because the 13th Amendment Allows Unpaid Prison Labor (The Intercept) Florida is afraid of its prison system. Here’s what lawmakers want to do about it. (Tampa Bay Times) Florida Prisoners Prepare To Strike, Demanding an End to Unpaid Labor and Brutal Conditions (The Intercept) Enlisting Prison Labor to Close Budget Gaps (via The New York Times, 2011) 4 Reasons to End Prison Labor Immediately (Care2) Written by BOTL Communications Director Amanda Hoffman  Produced by Jay! Tomlinson Thanks for listening! Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com Support the show via Patreon Check out the BotL iOS/Android App in the App Stores! Follow at Twitter.com/BestOfTheLeft Like at Facebook.com/BestOfTheLeft Contact me directly at Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com Review the show on iTunes and Stitcher!

In October 2006, dozens of antique tractor owners gathered at the Wessels Living History Farm at York, Nebraska, to show off their restored machines. This video podcast highlights the traditional Parade of Power.

In the early 20th century, threshing was a critical economic and social event. Members of several neighboring families would gather to separate wheat from the chaff using huge steam engines, horse-drawn wagons and threshing machines. In this video podcast, oral history interviews take you back to those days.