A Tour of Changing Geography of Agriculture and Landscapes in Central Minnesota

for

Center for Social Studies Education Agriculture Workshop

July 27 & 28, 2010

by

David Lanegran & Tom Egan - Minnesota Alliance for Geographic Education

Al Withers - Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom

“Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals

and Happiness”

(Letter from Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 1787)

Introduction

Resources in the Environment

This is a geographical excursion. Therefore, it is organized around some general concepts that we must

highlight before we begin. We will study the cultural landscape, or the human imprint on the

environment. To appreciate the cultural landscapes we traverse, we need to know what has happened in

the past, what is going on now and what is likely to happen in the future. While our ability to change the

environment is great, there are limits on what is possible for people to do with the physical environment.

In a similar fashion, the environment is made up of possibilities for human life, such as fertile soil, rivers

and lakes, rainfall, solar energy and other elements. Each group of people uses the environment according

to their cultures. Farmers use the land differently than do hunters. Likewise a mineral deposit gains value

only when a population has the capability to make it into an ore. Geographers frequently state that there

are no natural resources, just cultural attainments. This overstates the situation, but conveys the basic

notion that each group of people views the landscape through the lens of their culture, and uses the

environment according to that culture.

N.B. Most of the text has been excerpted from publication copyrighted by David Lanegran, do not copy

without written permission ©

Tap Roots of Minnesota Agriculture

Farming in medieval Europe followed the basic cropping system used since Roman times. It consisted of

a three-year rotation of food, feed, and fallow. In the first year a bread grain, usually, wheat or rye would

be planted in the fall lying dormant over the winter and then harvested at the end of summer. After

harvest the land would be plowed for a short season crop, such as barley or oats. These could be fed to

animals or converted into malt beer. Wheat, rye, barley, and oats were broadcast not planted in rows and

therefore not cultivated. The second year the land would become invested with pests and weeds and the

soil depleted. The third year the land would be allowed to lie fallow in order to recover. Only six to ten

times the amount of seed planted was ever harvested. Farmers saved a tenth of the seed for the next year.

Starvation was always close at hand. Oxen were used to pull the plows and carts. A family might have a

couple of small thin cows, which did not produce much milk. Any surplus milk was preserved in the

form of cheese or butter and was heavily salted. Meat was a rare dish for all but the upper class, or of the

nobility. Salt fish, especially cod was an important source of protein.

The three-crop system needed few structures and the fields did not need fencing. Barns were large

rectangular boxes and had double doors on either side. Workers would pound the grain on the floor in the

center of the barn with a flail, a tool used since the invention of agriculture. A man in good health could

give sheaves of grain thirty to forty strokes a minute. His threshing for the day would average eight

bushels of wheat, thirty of oats, eight of rye. The barn doors would be open to allow the wind to blow

through and remove the chaff. There would be no animals in the barn. If there were horses they would be

in a stable, the cattle in the byre, and sheep in the fold, hogs in the sty and poultry in the coop.

The Second Agricultural Revolution

The Second Agricultural Revolution which began on the North German Plain changed everything.

Agriculture moved to a four year rotation system. Consequential farmers no longer need to have one third

of their land lying fallow. This leads to a fifty percent increase in production.

It occurred concurrently with the industrial and urban revolutions and it made it possible for farmers to

feed the growing industrial labor force. Introduction of new crops allowed the development of a four-

year rotation system. Turnips, a row crop, could be cultivated by plowing or hoeing to eliminate the

weeds. Cattle were let in to the fields to graze on the leafy tops. The manure the cattle produced fertilized

the soil. The turnips were dug and stored for winter-feed. Clover, a legume, fertilizes by extracting

nitrogen from the air and storing it in the roots. These nodules remain in the soil after harvest thereby

enriching the soil. Clover can be grazed or mowed, dried and stored as hay. Clover is easily choked by

weeds so it needs a cover crop, usually barley or oats. Farmers still planted a grain but followed it by a

root crop such as turnips or potatoes in the second year. In the third year grain and clover were mixed

together and planted. The forth year the clover was harvested. This new system meant that a farmer did

not need to leave one third of the land idle as the root crop and clover enriched the soil.

The four-year rotation system increased the amount of winter feed; farmers could replace oxen with

horses. Although horses require a richer diet of grain one horse can do the work of two or three oxen.

Because the draft horses were strong than oxen, farmers were able to till heavier and more productive

soil. Crops increased so more animals could be wintered over. More animals meant more manure which

led to better and more crops.

The Seed Bed of American Farming

This four-year system was brought to American by German Mennonites, who settled in southeast

Pennsylvania (Lancaster County.) These fertile limestone plains are really the only truly good farmland

on the eastern coast. The farmers‘ new system of ―mixed farming‖ animals and crops was hugely

successful.

These Germans made a major breakthrough and introduced corn, which replaced wheat in the new

rotation. This new grain meant better feed for cattle. Oats remained as crop to feed the horses. The New

structures such as the Swiss Barn became the model and were soon commonly seen in the landscape. It

consisted of two stories, which had cattle in the lower level and threshing on the upper level. The size of

the barn was usually eighty by one hundred feet long and fifty by sixty feet wide. It was sited by a hill

with an earthen ramp leading to the second level. The fore bay, and extension or overhang reached out

over the lower level. This provided protection for the animals in bad weather.

Mixed farming required other changes: enclosed fields to keep out unwanted animals and to prevent

casual breeding, and structures for protection in bad weather, to store crops, stout pens to feed animals,

and collect manure. Animals and crops were kept in the barn, a custom not yet used in Europe.

The Second Seed Bed

The Lancaster system was carried by settlers to southwestern Ohio, which became the beginning of the

American Agricultural Heartland: the CORN BELT. This region extends from the plains of Ohio to the

eastern edge of Nebraska and northward into southern Minnesota. The fertile loess soils of Iowa made it

the center of the Corn Belt. Corn replaced wheat because corn produces more grain per acre than wheat.

Wheat production an excellent frontier crop moved to the western and northwestern edges of the Corn

Belt.

Corn was used mostly to feed livestock, and the American diet became centered on meat protein. Later

corn became an important industrial crop used to produce a myriad of food and household products.

Time and Landscapes

In the 1930s, Derwent Whittlesey coined the phrase, "sequent occupance," to describe the research

perspective of historical geographers. According to this view, each culture group in specific periods of

time develops a distinct landscape. At any one time, it is possible to see a landscape that is made up of a

combination of elements developed without human participation, and features of past cultural landscapes

that have been combined, either preserved as relics, or as useful components. To that mixture is added

new structures, pathways, patterns of land uses and attitudes toward nature. There are also new elements

that point toward the future and tell us how the landscape is developing. As we pass rapidly through the

countryside or city center, it is easy to blend the features of the landscape into a monochromatic blur

where nothing stands out and all the messages from the landscape-texts are inaudible. When one moves

slowly, details and colors stand out.

While this short excursion will introduce you to many relict features of the past landscapes, we will not

attempt to create landscapes of the past in great detail. Instead, we will look at the present scene and

practice our ability to read the landscape.

Historical Geographic Epochs of Settlement and Urbanization

The seminal work by John R. Borchert on the sequence of settlement patterns that have characterized the

United States is the best way to organize our thinking about the sequence of landscapes in the Upper

Mississippi Valley. Borchert identified four primary epochs or phases in urbanization. The first, ending

in 1820, he called the sail and wagon period. This was when animate energy powered most travel on land,

and the wind carried ships. The second epoch was when steamboats and short haul railroads took over

most of the transportation business. Steam engines were also installed in factories and the importance of

waterpower sites diminished. The second epoch lasted about sixty years, until the third epoch of the long

haul rail net came to dominate overland transportation. The telegraph and, later, the telephone were

developed for communication. In the 1920's, the railroad began to lose its dominance and the fourth

phase, the air, auto and amenity epoch, began. We can add the computer to the list of dominant

technologies in the contemporary phase of the fourth epoch. The work of John Borchert is useful because

he instructs how important changes in communication and industrial technology impact the pattern of

urbanization and associated land use. We will see some sites that predate the steamboats, but the first big

change in the valley was the coming of the scheduled steamers. As a result, the number of towns boomed.

Likewise, the long haul railroad had a dramatic impact on the growth of the old steamer ports. Patients

could come to Rochester on the Pullman cars from distant cities and enable the clinic to develop

specializations that could not be supported by the local hinterland. The landscapes we visit on this journey

show us how settlements wax and wane according to the dynamics of the epochs.

A corollary to the idea of epochs is the notion that circulation (transportation and communication)

systems are either a surface or a network. On a surface, movement can be in any direction with equal

case, while on a network, movement's limited in direction but normally faster because the likelihood of

collisions is minimized. Systems of transportation swing between surfaces and networks in response to

inventions. We like both the speed of networks and the freedom of direction of movement on surfaces.

The best example of this process is the development of a telephone system based on wires. The service is

excellent as long as we stay on the network of wires. However, people clearly want to be able to

communicate without being on the wires and so we are experiencing an explosion of cellular phones that

do not require the network.

During the first epoch, settlement could be anywhere along the river. The coming of steamboats

established a river-based network that favored certain sites. The river towns were, in turn, set back by the

coming of the railroads. Railroad towns flourished until changes in technology favored highway travel.

These will continue well into the future. During the course of this trip we will see many places that did

not make it and some of the biggest winners. We will also have ample time to speculate on the future

settlement pattern.

Economic Development

The general pattern of settlement in the area follows a progression that begins with the several groups of

Native Americans who occupied the valley or passed through it on their way to other regions. We know

little about the first occupants of the valley, but the long reach of the French fur traders probed into the

valley in the seventeenth century. This stretch of the Mississippi was not considered prime fur country, so

the French presence was superficial. The English and American traders made a more concerted effort to

exploit the area's resources until the 1850s. The Americans built Fort Snelling to secure the area from the

predations of the Hudson Bay Company. They built the first network of roads and arranged the transfer of

land from the Dakota Indians to eastern white migrants. The pioneer farmers forced the native people off

the land and onto the reservations.

The farm families needed several sorts of towns. Ports, first on the river and later on the rails, were

needed to make commercial agriculture work. In addition, mills were needed to produce local goods.

County seats with judges and sheriffs were required to keep law and order. Eventually, service centers or

farm-trade centers flourished by serving the various needs of the surrounding farmers. The development

of the long haul railroad and the contemporary system of highways, freeways, and airports enabled towns

and cities in the valley to specialize in a variety of functions including livestock slaughtering, liberal arts

teaching, and surgery and healing.

Resort towns such as Buffalo have long been a part of the landscape. In more recent years, the rapid

sprawl of the metropolitan area has dominated the developing landscape.

But economic development is not unidirectional. In the course of the trip, we will see how places have

waxed and waned. Some places flared brightly before fading into comfortable residential communities:

others have entirely disappeared. The failure of some towns can be traced to global processes of

technological change, competition from nearby communities with superior resources. Each place has its

unique story and together they can be woven into a rich tapestry that includes broad patterns of cultural

and landscape change.

The Landscape Taste

This is a tour of both city and countryside. We begin in the city and will return again to the crowds,

congestion and noise of the modern American city. For most of our time, we will be in the countryside.

According to our intellectual forbearers, the American Acadia, the dream landscape where human virtue

would be perfected, could be found only in the countryside. In the eighteenth century, Thomas Jefferson

wrote in his Notes on Virginia:

"Those who labour in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever he had a chosen people, whose

breasts he has made his peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue."

Of course, the fact that Jefferson was a farmer may have influenced his perspective in special ways.

During the nineteenth century, the idea of a perfect rural landscape was kept alive in a variety of

publications and by eloquent politicians. In his analysis of that ideal, Leo Marx described the middle

landscape as, "the agrarian area where the middle world of man is poised between the city and

wilderness." This sentiment permeates our culture. We try to get as close as possible to our city jobs by

moving to the suburbs. We yearn to spend weekends in the tamed landscapes of lakeshore communities

and quaint bed and breakfasts in old towns.

We will not see Acadia on this trip. We will see landscape that is being made to conform to our aesthetics

or our landscape tastes. We preserve what we like and remove what displeases us. It is not easy to

describe the archetypal, Midwestern landscape taste. A case could be made for the suburban commercial

strip. These seem to abut every community on the route and teenagers clearly love shopping malls. Fences

certainly did not fit into the grand scheme of things because they were rapidly ripped from the fields.

Corn cribs, windmills, pig sties, outhouses and chicken coops have also been systematically eradicated.

Progressive widening of major roads has removed the ancient trees that sheltered the earliest travelers on

this road.

Some old main streets have been preserved, while others have gone through extensive renewal. Trees

have undergone a re-evaluation during the last century. At first it seemed that trees were good for fuel and

building, but today the tree has a more complex role in the landscape. It is now praised for both its beauty

and for its role in balancing environmental forces.

This guide is intended to be use alongside the atlas of Minnesota agriculture contained in the Food for

Thought: Connecting Minnesota Geography, Agriculture and Communities (3rd Edition). All map

references refer to pages in that curriculum.

Starting point

Our route will take us through the transition zone between the State‘s urban core and prime agricultural

region of Minnesota (see maps 19, 20) In addition to seeing agribusiness practices, the dominate theme

in the landscape is the change from production to consumption. The effects of population growth and

industrialization will compete with framing for our attention. Our three stops will focus on important

development in agribusiness, the continued mechanization of farming, the food processing and the

development of new products and markets for crop.

Oliver H. Kelley Farm

In 1849, Minnesota Territory was established with a population of fewer than 6,000 settlers. With few

towns and a widely scattered population, farmers raised the food and most of the supplies for their own

families, providing little for trade to stores or markets. As the territory grew, improved transportation

routes and better farming techniques allowed farmers to supply food for new settlers and growing cities.

Although he knew little about farming in 1850, Oliver H. Kelley staked a claim at the new town of Itasca

on the Mississippi River near present-day Elk River. He became a ―book farmer,‖ learning the latest

farming techniques from agricultural journals and by corresponding with other ―scientific-oriented‖

farmers. In a short time, he became an expert on farming in Minnesota. He learned firsthand the impact

that debt, weather, insects and crop failures can have on a farmer, and his farm life was one of struggle

and hardship.

Kelley moved away from farming and Minnesota in the late 1860s, and in his later years he was known

for founding the National Grange, a fraternal organization of farm families. Two of his daughters returned

to the farm in 1876 and managed it during the summers until 1885. The Kelleys owned the farm until

1901.

The National Grange purchased the farm in 1935 and donated it to the Minnesota Historical Society in

1961. At this National Historic Landmark, visitors become involved in living history demonstrations of

the work and play of daily life for Oliver H. Kelley's family and other farmers in mid-19th-century

Minnesota.

West on US Highway 10 to MN 25 in Big Lake

US 10 is located on terraces of the Mississippi River. Both sides of the river are covered with glacial drift

of the Grantsburg sublobe of the Des Moines Lobe. The Mississippi was formed by melting glaciers and

during the various Ice Ages had different routes. The present course of the river was developed at the end

of the Wisconsin Glacial Epoch. The river now drains the young landscape created in the aftermath of the

glacial retreat. The river‘s ten locks and dams between Minneapolis and Iowa and several headwaters

dams constructed the nineteenth century were built to maintain a steady flow of water for the mills at the

Falls of St Anthony. When combined with the Missouri, the Mississippi is 3,887 miles long and ranks

number four among the longest rivers of the world. The Mississippi alone was once 2,552 miles long, but

since 1938 it has been shortened by 200 miles. At 2,352 miles the Mississippi ranks 15th, just ahead of

the Volga.

BNSF Tracks parallel US 10

The mid-1850s were a time when national public opinion shifted from expanding the size of the country

to tightly binding the new territories to the more established states in the east. Railroads reached the

Mississippi in 1854, and then business interests were pressuring Congress for a plan and subsidies for

expanding the railroad network into the trans-Mississippi west. At first a plan was formulated to build

three railroads, but Congress thought that was too expensive and decided only one could be supported.

This prompted a heated dispute between the free and slave holding states. The dispute over the proposed

railroad line was both local and regional, with numerous western and eastern terminal cities vying to be

on the route. Congress was stalemated but because some action was needed, the task of selecting the route

was passed on to the War Department and the engineers were ordered to pick the best one.

The Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis, was charged with assigning survey teams to all prospective routes

and selecting the best one based on the data compiled by the field parties. In order to accomplish this huge

task, Secretary Davis established a new agency, the Office of Pacific Railroad Explorations and Surveys,

which was directed by Army Engineering Officers. Each expedition was required to report on the

numerous factors affecting railroad construction. Essentially all details of the physical landscape had to be

recorded, including distances, slopes, valleys, ravines, passes, canyons, potential bridge sites, and tunnels.

In addition, each survey had to evaluate the economic potential of the route. Congress wanted to know

about supplies of timber, stone, coal, and water. This task was clearly too much for one officer, no matter

how able, so large teams of scientists went along to carry out detailed observations. Thus the railway

surveys provided the first great opportunity for geography and other sciences to influence national policy.

Four potential transcontinental routes that had significant support among Congressmen were selected for

surveys. The Minnesota based route, between the forty-seventh and forty-ninth parallels from St. Paul,

Minnesota, to Puget Sound was surveyed by former Engineering Officer Isaac I. Stevens, who was also

the new Governor of Washington Territory. In the spring of 1853, Stevens led his expedition, the largest,

most well equipped, west from St. Paul. Highly competent and an effective leader, Stevens controlled 240

men—11 officers, 76 soldiers, and an assortment of scientists, teamsters, guides, and wranglers. He

needed a force of this size because his was the most difficult route. For forty years no surveyors had

ventured into this territory that was still very much controlled by the Native Americans. Furthermore, the

expedition needed to get through the high mountains before the snows of winter closed the passes.

Stevens divided his men into several detachments, each with its own assignment. While he started

westward across the plains, another started from Puget Sound, and two others worked in the Rockies.

Stevens wanted to have the northern route selected because it would ensure the success of Washington

Territory. He casually overlooked the issues of high mountains and cold northern winters and focused on

the broad plains, passes in the Rockies, and the connection with China. Some members of the survey team

agreed with him, others thought the route impossible. The subsequent construction of the Great Northern

and Northern Pacific would prove Stevens correct, but those construction projects would demand

leadership, creativity, and government financial support.

The Northern Security Company was founded in 1904 by James J. Hill, J. P. Morgan, J. D. Harriman, and

J. D. Rockefeller. These industrialists wanted to gain a monopoly over transit in this region, even though

the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 had outlawed this kind of business practice. The ‗Trust Busters‘ of

President Theodore Roosevelt successfully sued the Northern Securities for violating the act and in 1904

the company was dissolved by order of the Supreme Court of the United States. The individual railroad

companies prospered for a few decades but by the end of the century these and several other lines were

merged into the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Line and the total miles of railroad tracks were

significantly reduced.

US Highway 10

Throughout the nineteenth century, the system of wagon and buggy roads in Minnesota and elsewhere

was the responsibility of local governments. Those people wishing to travel or ship goods a long distance

used the railroad. The quality of the local roads varied tremendously but they were all in poor condition.

In wealthy communities roads were graded and graveled; other communities provided the best roads they

could afford. There were no paved roads outside the large cities. In the countryside the best time to travel

was during the winter when the roads froze or were covered with ice and snow that made travel by sleigh

or cutter efficient and fast. In the spring, the roads developed large potholes that waited to mire down

travelers. Once the roads dried out they became sand traps and the horses‘ hooves and wagon wheels

kicked up clouds of dust. Township Road Districts under the guidance of a local farmer in the role of

Supervisor of the Town Roads laid out roads along township lines and edges of farms. The system was

inconsistent and not well connected. Counties also took on road building and maintenance but the results

were similar. Poor roads, an inconsistent network of roads and the lack of maps or guides hampered the

traveler by wagon and buggy. Directions were all based on local landmarks and rough estimates of

distance. A town might be a ―fur piece‖ or ―over yonder.‖ Directions related to local barns, schoolhouses,

forks in roads, and other landscape features. This was not a major problem for most people until the

automobile became widespread.

In 1900 there were fewer than 75 miles of paved roads in the state. Most people and goods going

anywhere outside the local neighborhood went by train. Into this gap moved private enterprise and the

automobile clubs that published directions and then combinations of directions and simple strip maps as

itineraries. They also developed a system of named and marked roads that facilitated long-distance travel.

The development of named trails began in the second decade of the twentieth century in response to the

rapid increase in the number of car owners. The recreational auto era had begun, and enterprising groups

were developed to expedite travel and lobby for improved roads. The first two organized routes were the

National Old Trails Road, running from Baltimore to Los Angles, and the Lincoln Highway, at first called

the Coast to Coast Rock Highway because it was graveled, ran from New York to San Francisco. The

Lincoln Highway opened in 1915 in time for the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. The

backers of the various routes selected a series of roads, christened their route with a memorable name, and

formed a trail association, and solicited businesses and towns along the way for dues. The associations

promoted their routes with guides, newsletters, conventions, and encouraged the governments to begin to

improve the roads that comprised their routes.

By the mid-1920s, there were 250 identified routes running from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the

Northern Border to southern cities. The Jefferson Highway passed through Minnesota on its way from

Winnipeg to New Orleans. In Minnesota there were many shorter routes as well as regional trails

including the Red Ball Route (Cedar Rapids, Iowa to St. Paul) and the Wonderland Trail (Duluth to

Grand Forks, North Dakota). All were established to promote travel, good roads and the economic

prosperity of the towns they passed through.

Signage was a huge problem, which each trail association tried to solve by painting its unique logo on any

reasonably permanent landscape feature visible from the road. Telephone poles were the preferred spots

for painting a sign but anything, for example trees, barns, rocks, or bridges would do when the poles were

not available.

These trails provided a valuable service in the early days but there were serious problems with the system.

Some did not really meet a demonstrated traffic need; others went through as many dues-paying towns as

possible rather than taking the shortest route. In other cases corporations such as hotels distributed maps

that were intended to bring travelers to their doors. Other retailers also distributed maps but the

connection between their products and travel is not so obvious.

Rival routes frequently overlapped, making the motorists uncertain as to which to take when the routes

separated. Some of them wondered if the organizers were really providing a public service or just trying

to make easy money.

The first state to replace the trail signs with numbers was Wisconsin, which created a state trunk highway

system in 1917 that required uniform signage. In the Federal Aid to Highways Acts of 1910 and 1921,

limited federal funding was provided to support the development of roads for the transport of mail, which

previously had been carried on the trains for interstate travel. The 1921 Act provided funding to 7 percent

of each state's road network. The roads eligible for Federal aid on a 50-50 basis were identified in 1923

and a long awaited era of road building dawned. Long-distance travel remained an adventure for many

years to come, however.

Farmers have made use of the sandy soils of Mississippi terraces by growing potatoes and nursery crops

with irrigation.

Nursery Crops - The Minnesota nursery, greenhouse and landscape industry is valued at over $2.1 billion

and growing. Nationally, horticulture production is the fastest growing segment of agriculture, being

recognized as ―specialty crop farming‖ by the USDA. If the weather is nice, Gerten‘s Garden Center in

Inver Grove Heights may do $1 million in sales the Saturday of Mother‘s Day weekend. The nurseries are

concentrated on the northwest side of the metro area in the corridor extending from the Twin Cities to St

Cloud (See Map 9 p 59). This pattern results from the accessibility to the urban markets and the small

farmers who changed from mix farming (with dairy) to market gardening to maintain their lifestyle.

Potatoes - Farmers plant potatoes in a three-year rotation, usually with corn and edible beans. This is

done to keep plant and soil diseases in check when growing potatoes. A usual cycle is edible beans, then

potatoes, then corn and then start the rotation again. Potatoes grow best in sandy soil with irrigation; this

produces the most uniform potatoes with the least amount of bruising. Trivia: The average potato is 75-

80% water. Most potato production is for the fast food market. As can be seen on the map below, potato

production is concentrated in rather isolated areas. Northern Maine, the Snake Valley in Idaho, the Poluse

of Eastern Washington, the sandy plains of central Wisconsin and Michigan and in northwest and central

Minnesota. Their crop does well in cool climates and is extremely vulnerable to blights (ex. Irish Potato

Famine), which can be carried to the crop from tomatoes, especially tomatoes from Mexico.

Center pivot irrigation – Most of today‟s irrigation in Minnesota is delivered via center pivot operation. A

typical center pivot (if there are no obstacles) can cover 132 acres of a 160 acre field base. The well

drawing groundwater may be near or as far away as a mile, depending on the operation, access to power,

etc. Center pivots may pump from 700 to 1,200 gallons per minute. Conservation leaders are working

now working on ways to lower the rate of evaporation. Wind and heat are two key factors for evaporation

(may be 20-30% depending on conditions). They are working on a technology based on „water droplets‟

which allows larger drops of water to be delivered to the field from a shorter distance, thus minimizing

evaporation. Given some variables in lay of the land and farmer needs, and advances in technology and

control, consider a modern center pivot irrigation system to cost $500-600 per acre.

Go south on MN 25 to US 12

Grain storage - In the 1920‘s, Minnesota boasted about 1,200 country elevators to serve the grain storage

needs of local farmers. Today, that number stands at about 600 country elevators across the state. In the

last 30 years, farmers have dramatically increased their own ‗on-farm‘ storage and drying facilities. It is

estimated that today some 75% of all grain harvested is kept on the farm in storage and not sent ‗down the

road‘ to the local elevator. This allows them to hold their grain for sales/marketing purposes; they aren‘t

tied to just driving to the elevator for the current per bushel price posted. These same farmers now own

semi-trucks for the purpose of marketing their grain directly, whether that being to the local processor,

ethanol plant or for direct delivery to an agribusiness river terminal for transportation to a U.S. or global

customer. Most of the 200 million bushels of Minnesota corn used in ethanol production is delivered

directly to an ethanol plant and not to a local elevator for storage. Finally, loss of a local elevator also has

economic impact on that community because an average elevator employs 20 people.

There has been a growing interest in what one calls ‗agra-entertainment‘. This is the combining of a

destination for garden produce or pick-your-own sites (berries, apples, etc.), fun activities for the entire

family, and a chance to interface with a mostly urban/city audience and provides some education about

agriculture.

Buffalo

Buffalo is the home to the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association and the Minnesota Broiler and Egg

Association since 2001. It has been a great move from their former office in St. Paul (was there mostly

due to lobbying activities at the Capitol). In Buffalo, staff is now much closer to the action on the farm

with their turkey growers and broiler/egg members.

Go West on US Highway 12 to Atwater via Litchfield to First District Association Cheese Plant

The original big woods or deciduous forest extended west from the Twin Cities are to Litchfield where

the prairie began to be the dominate ecosystem. Farms cleared the land and then planted shelter builds

around their farmsteads to create a better micro-climate and along the margins of field to reduce wind

erosion.

The road crosses glacial deposits of the Des Moines. Between Twin Cities and Delano the hilly terrain is

an end moraine, Between Delano and Atwater it is a stagnation moraine, which has produced the

numerous lakes. From Atwater to Willmar the Des Moines deposit is thin and lies on top of the

Alexandria Moraine

Plows and Fences - In order for the agricultural settlers to prosper they had to convert the oak savannah

and long grass prairies to cropland. The prairie sod first had to be broken and fences built against the free

ranging animals. Breaking the centuries old sod was tough work. Done by hand in the spring and summer

it was described as deviling. A team of very strong oxen would be yoked to a massive, iron plow-share

that weighed between 60 to 125 pounds. Only a skilled hand could plow in a straight line. John Deere, a

blacksmith in Illinois, made a plowshare from saw blade steel, and created a one-piece plow and

moldboard. This became the plow that broke the plains. The moist prairie soil did not cling to the blade,

and sod was turned over neatly. Soon, thousands of farmers were using the John Deere plow and the

grasslands were converted to arable soil in less than a decade. No longer concerned with breaking virgin

soil, most farmers have adopted a minimum tillage program which uses chisel plows. They enable crops

to be planted without completely turning over the topsoil. Sometimes called conservation tillage, this

technique preserves soil nutrients and moisture, and prevents erosion.

The solution for the problem of providing economical fencing was solved by another inventor in Illinois.

Before the Civil War, farmers were making the traditional split rail fences like those developed in

Virginia. However, this fence used large amounts of timber and could not be used on the plains. The

railroads made it possible for the sawmills to ship posts and boards long distances and, thus, made it

possible to produce cheaper but less permanent wooden fences. There was a major experiment to use

hedges rather than fences. Osage Orange, a tough woody shrub, was promoted widely in the Midwest.

Hedges took four years to be livestock proof. After that they needed trimming and of course they shaded

the adjacent soil, used nutrients and housed lots of pests. Hedges and woven wire fences were replaced by

single-wire fences. At first most people thought some sort of wire mesh or string of plain wire would

work, but that failed. The single strand of wire expanded in the summer and contracted in the winter.

Hanging limp in the hot sun, they were not stock proof and the wire mesh was plagued with rusting as

well as the contraction issues. In 1874, the breakthrough occurred near DeKalb, Illinois, when two or

three strands of galvanized wire were twisted around sharp barbs. Soon, a machine for making the wire

was developed and by 1900 Midwestern barbed wire was sold around the world. Scholars have argued

that the barbed wire made the small homesteads on the prairies both possible and profitable.

Agriculture has changed dramatically over the years. The barbed wire fences are being removed because

livestock are seldom pastured and never allowed to run free. Dairy cattle, hogs, turkeys, and chickens are

all bred in houses. During the administration of Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz, farmers were urged to

plant from field line to field line and the slim barbed wire fences were removed to get more room. Watch

for fences. For the most part they are now relics.

Montrose

Two Story dairy barns with companion silos are other relics in the landscape. The two story dairy barn

was developed in New York by lifting up the traditional wheat barn with its central threshing floor and

putting a basement underneath with stations for cows. The cows faced the sides of the barn with a

feeding trough and narrow aisle between the stanchions and the windows. A central alley way with

manure gutters made the barns relatively easy to keep clean. Before mechanization, one end of the barn

contained stalls for horses. Bulls were kept is extra strong stations or box stalls. The upper story was used

to store hay. About 125 years ago farms began to cut and chop corn before it was ripe (silage) and feed it

to the cows in the winter. The silage was stored in large rectangular bins which were later replaced by the

much more efficient cylindrical silos. Thus the traditional dairy evolved into a masonry or stone first floor

topped with a large hayloft. The hay was loaded into one end of the loft with a specialized block and

tackle called a hayfork. A built up earthen ramp gave access to the loft from side of the barn. The

Pennsylvania farmers added a ―loafing shed‖ on the sunny side of the barn so cattle could be outdoors for

most of the year. The cold winters of Minnesota and Wisconsin discouraged that modification of the

basic design. After World War Two, the Harvestor Company produced the large blue silos that were lined

with glass to keep the silage fresh. Until the late 20th century, dairy farms were small and the dairy region

was populated with 6-8 families per square mile in the most productive areas.

The contemporary barn is one story, with tent like sides that can be raised in warm weather to help cool

the cattle. Cows generate a huge amount of heat and so need to be kept cool. The cows are no longer

confined by stanchions but move free through the large pens. They generally pick one area as their rest

area. Their feed is much more sophisticated that just corn silage. Today the silos are also obsolete and

most silage is stored on the ground in large bunkers.

Waverly

Ditches - Drainage was the last in the succession of major technologic advances that contributed to the

transformation of the long grass prairies to cropland. The poorly drained till plains were viewed

scornfully by the first settlers. The land was littered with swales with shallow pools or with marshes.

They were home to billions of bugs, and people believed they were a source for a whole range of fevers,

agues and assorted complaints. The grass was heavy and lumber supplies were short. Therefore, the wet

prairies, perhaps the most productive of the natural ecosystems, were avoided by the first wave of

farmers. Subsequent settlers grazed livestock and cut marsh hay. Later, ditches were dug and marshes

drained for permanent cultivation. The progress of draining varied directly with the price of land. When

land costs increased, the marginal wet prairies were re-evaluated and farmers invested in drainage

schemes.

Open ditches work fine on uplands. The streams needed no protection and ditches could be emptied into

streams without pumping. The draining accomplished several things. It enabled the fields to dry out

quickly in the spring so farmers could get an early start on planting. Secondly, it drew down the water

table so the roots of plants had to extend down several feet for moisture. These deep systems enabled

crops to withstand the periods of drought that occur in the high summer. At first, farmers created ditches

the old European way – they dug them by hand. Frequently, migrant laborers were hired for this

backbreaking task. This sort of ditching worked well in small depressions and scattered fields. However,

it did not work very well over large areas because the ditches‟ walls collapsed. They filled with sediment

and became choked with weeds. Farmers soon realized the task required cooperation. In 1858, the first

drainage law was passed in Minnesota. It enabled people who joined together to create an integrated

system of ditches to become a corporate body. Later, drainage enterprises would be enabled to acquire

land, finance projects, condemn land when necessary, construct and maintain works and allocate charges

in the form of levies and taxes. By 1901 a state drainage commission was established which carried

topographical surveys of waters in preparation for a statewide drainage system and established rules and

regulations for ditches. In order to get this power, the associations had to show how the public in general

would benefit from the plan. Most of these justifications when challenged in court were based on the

notion that draining the wetlands prevented malaria and other threats to the public health. It seems that

most people regarded drainage and the extension of tillage as good, and farmers who opposed them were

labeled reactionaries and were not allowed to stand in the way of progress.

After early experiments with tunneling using a device known as a mole bore proved inefficient, the

farming community turned to laying tile drains. Local clays were used to form cylindrical tubes of four or

more feet long and two to eight inches in diameter. These tiles were placed along the bottom of a trench

about four feet deep and covered with topsoil. The water in the soil would enter the drains at the joints

from the bottom. Once in the tile it flowed down the slope. The lines of tiles were placed between forty to

one hundred feet apart depending on the nature of the soil. These tiles were aligned with the lay of the

land and drained in to large ditches that moved the water quickly downstream. Although ditches were still

required at the edges of farms, fields above the tiles could be plowed without concern about damaging the

drainage system. Obviously, something as complicated as this could only be justified if the returns in

production were great. The progress of tiling was slow but hundreds of thousands of miles of tile are now

underlying the fields of the Midwest. The big boom in tile in Minnesota occurred in the 1880s and 1890s.

Most ditches were dug by the contractors, the work paid for with money borrowed by the ditching

enterprise. Outlet ditches were dug with giant plows called swamp angels that were pulled by teams of up

to sixteen oxen or horses. Mechanical trenchers and ditchers gradually replaced the animal-powered rigs.

Once the contractor invested in a machine, he went out seeking work to pay off his debts. Efforts

continued through the 1920s, but by that time most of the farms in southern Minnesota had been drained.

According to the English geographer Hugh Prince:

The orderly appearance of large fields of regular shape, efficiently

worked by machinery, may be traced to the period of tile draining. It is a

paradox that, where draining was most successfully accomplished, a

casual observer can find the least trace of it. The present landscape hides

its past; the tile lines are hidden from view, main drains are unobtrusive,

and farming is distinguishable from that practiced on naturally well-

drained, but rapidly eroded slopes, only its superiority.

Howard Lake

Several turkey and egg producers are located in this area. Minnesota leads the nation in turkey

production, followed by North Carolina, Arkansas, Virginia and Missouri. (see maps 17 p. 67 and map 25

p. 75) Annually, Minnesota turkey farmers raise 45 million birds on about 250 independent farms,

actually about 600 different sites because some have multiple grow-out farms. That would be an average

of about 175,000 turkeys raised per farm operation. This 250 farm count does not include the farm

operations controlled by Jennie-O of Willmar, who grow out many of their birds on their own company-

owned operations.

Earl B. Olson of Willmar, Minnesota was a farmer who developed Minnesota‘s turkey industry in 1938.

He was involved in a co-op creamery and operated a trucking service for small farmers. In 1941, he had

300 birds and by 1949, he raised 300,000. He then bought his own processing plant in Willmar. In those

decades, turkey was a specialty food raised for Thanksgiving and Christmas and farmers raised one brood

per year. Olson wanted to operate year-round so he established his own farms for off season product. In

1953, he set up operations to further process the birds and establish is now famous brand Jenny-O, named

after his daughter. He continued to expand and established his own feed mill in 1963. In 1968, he shifted

to confinement production. By 1986 he determined more capital was needed to compete in the national

market and the corporation was sold to Hormel. In 2000, the nine Jenny-O processing plants processed

about 880 million pounds of turkey.

Turkey production has experienced a major transformation. At first it was production driven and farmers

hoped to sell what they produced. Now it is consumption driven and the corporations only produce what

they can market. As the cost of production has declined, turkey has been transformed into a wide array of

packaged food. (Hart p. 178-179)

Cokato (map 23 p 73)

Notice industrial development along highway e.g. Geo thermo heating and cooling and Saun Tec

(Saunas).

Old creamery on the right - changing scale of agriculture has made the smaller creameries (usually co-

ops) unable to compete so consolidation has occurred.

Faribault Foods Vegetable packing is an example of process moving close to the resources to conform to

Weber‘s theories of economic localization (see map 23 p 73).

Syngenta creates corn genetics. It is a Swiss Firm with U.S. headquarters in Minnetonka. It has research

stations in Stanton, Minnesota. They grow seed crops in Hawaii and Chile as well as Minnesota.

Formerly Northrop King.

Dassel

From 1937 to the mid 1970s, Universal Laboratories in

Dassel provided raw ergot from the grain fields of the

western US and Canada to pharmaceutical companies. Workers separated the infected kernels from

infected rye. Critical drugs were produced from the ergot, saving countless military and civilian lives.

Ergot or ergot fungi refers to a group of fungi which grows on rye and related plants. It produces

alkaloids that can cause ergotism in humans and other mammals that consume grains contaminated with

the fruiting structure of this fungus. Ergot alkaloids have a wide range of biological activities including

effects on circulation and neurotransmission. Ergotism is the name for sometimes-severe pathological

syndromes affecting humans or animals that have ingested ergot alkaloid-containing plant material, such

as ergot-contaminated grains. The common name for ergotism is ―St. Anthony's Fire,‖ in reference to

monks who cared for victims, as well as for symptoms, such as severe burning sensations in the limbs.

These are caused by effects of ergot alkaloids on the vascular system due to vasoconstrictions of blood

vessels, sometimes leading to gangrene and loss of limbs due to severely restricted blood circulation.

The neurotropic activities of the ergot alkaloids may also cause hallucinations, attendant irrational

behavior, convulsions, and even death. Ergot is a natural source of LSD. Other symptoms include strong

uterine contractions, and unconsciousness. Since the Middle Ages, controlled doses of ergot were used to

induce abortions and to stop maternal bleeding after childbirth. Ergot extract has been used to treat

migraine headaches, and to induce uterine contractions and to control bleeding after childbirth.

Note preserved gas station

Darwin

Chicken and egg production - The broiler and

egg business sector is almost 100% vertically

integrated, meaning the company (in this case

Sparboe Eggs, Michael‘s and much of the

Goldn‘Plump inventory) is controlled by the

company from the farm through processing.

Sparboe Farms serves retail, wholesale and

foodservice customers in 26 states. The core

focus of Sparboe Farms is to service grocery

distributors, retailers, foodservice

professionals and processors who require

superior quality eggs and egg products, both branded and private label. Sparboe Farms is the fifth largest

shell egg producer and marketer in the United States. It operates seven processing plants supported by 33

accompanying layer and pullet production sites. It owns and operates facilities in three states (Iowa,

Colorado and Minnesota). It began when Bob Sparboe came to Litchfield in 1954 to set up a hatchery to

hatch eggs and sell day old chicks to farmers. Realizing farmers were going out of chicken production; he

shifted his operations to the production of pullets to sell to large poultry farmers. In 1963, he set up

another model with farmers producing eggs for him to market. Because feed costs are such a major

variable in egg production, he then set up his own feed milling operation. In 1974, he set up the first in-

line egg laying operation in Minnesota. He soon had to help farmers expand the scale of their production

and loaned them money for operations, the Sparboe Summit farm had a capacity of 960,000 hens in

twelve houses and processes eggs from contractors with about 500,000 hens. By 2000, the company had

about 3 million hens and processed 756 million eggs and marketed another 156 million eggs from

process. Today they ship tanker trucks of liquid eggs around the country. (Hart pp 166-167)

An average hen lays 240 eggs per year and after two years they are taken out of production.

Litchfield

The establishment of a network of urban settlements that could provide the various services needed by the

farm families who established their individual claims was a critical component in the settlement of

western states. In most of the world, rural landscapes consist of farmers settled in clusters or hamlets

surrounded by their fields. In the United States the farmers, following the Jeffersonian ideal, live in a

dispersed pattern. Because no hamlets were available to supply the goods and services the farmers

required, it was necessary to establish new towns all across the agricultural frontier. Thus the American

landscape became clearly divided between urban and rural space. In this symbiotic relationship, the

farmers needed towns to process, market, and ship their products, and to supply the goods and service that

could not be produced on the farm. In particular, the farmers needed a governmental system to uphold

their claims of land ownership. Merchants and service providers in the towns needed the farmers‘

business to provide their economic base. Thus although many popular images of the frontier focus on the

far-ranging mountain man and fur trader, the agricultural frontier was also an urban frontier. Cities were

not literally in the wilderness, but the wilderness was frequently visible from their suburbs.

Towns in Minnesota developed in two phases: the first occurred prior to the Civil War during the era

when transportation was dominated by river travel and only a few trails and roads penetrated the

interfluves. The second phase happened as the railroad network developed and the roads and trails were

still primitive. Most of the towns founded in the first era were the work of real estate speculators

operating from eastern cities. Typically organized into small syndicates of investors, these men expected

to establish thriving river ports on the Mississippi, St. Croix, and Minnesota rivers. Short wagon roads

radiated out from these towns as farmers began to till the land. Small crossroad settlements and trading

posts were created during this phase but they were few and struggled for commercial life. The most

successful of these early towns were those set up to saw the logs harvested in the virgin forests of the

Mississippi‘s watershed. Minnesota did not attract the large, organized groups of settlers who bought

lands together and organized towns that reflected their special philosophies or religions. Only New Ulm is

reflective of this latter type of settlement pattern.

The railroad companies, either directly or through their own special town site development corporations,

platted towns on the land they owned along their tracks. These companies were thinking in monopolistic

terms and wanted to have a rational economic set of towns that would complement one another and

minimize competition.

The United States legal system contains almost no regulations for the platting of towns. Every settled

township boasted at least one crossroads town. The bigger communities contained a post office, an ethnic

church, a general store, and perhaps a mill. By 1870 there were about 1000 small towns in the state, all

aspiring for greatness. Individuals could plat a town site at any time and on any place they owned. No

standards were established for either size or design. But the plat needed legal property descriptions,

streets, and blocks of lots. Blocks could have alleys of any design and parcels could be set aside for public

use. But in this laissez faire system the risk was entirely on the speculator and those who purchased lots.

The speculator surveyed the site, drew up a plat, and registered the plat with the county registrar of deeds.

Once that was accomplished the sale of lots could begin. Of course people had some expectations of what

a town should be and how it should appear. But a wide range of designs and sizes was tolerated. Under

this set of rules the likelihood of failure or under performance was high. Once platted, the developers did

everything in their power to insure success. However, these efforts were limited by the town‘s location

and design. Issues of lot size and orientation, the width of roads, efficiency of intersections, block size,

the provision of public land and access to rivers, railroads, and roads could determine the appeal and

success of a plat. In order to minimize the uncertain impact of town design on sales, the developers used

designs that mimicked successful towns elsewhere.

Minnesota land speculators founded towns that were focused on commerce and real estate development.

They were centered on either a river or railroad and a commercialized main street. Notions about the

village green and the courthouse square were left behind in New England and Pennsylvania. Only in a

few cases were public spaces considered central to the town‘s design. Unfortunately the developers wrote

little about the thinking that lay behind their specific town plans, but it seems very likely that the county

surveyors who approved the plans for registration were very influential. The plats provided a spatial

framework that set up a legal property holding system that promoted transportation, residential harmony,

and commerce. These functions could occur in the context of a wide range of geometries but Minnesota

towns are based on three general patterns; regular grids following the public survey; those oriented on the

railroad tracks; and those situated on a river.

As the agricultural population waxed and waned so did the fortunes of the farm trade centers regardless of

their design. Some towns grew large while other stagnated and declined. The cool logic of the railroad

towns separated by a distance a horse drawn wagon could travel in a day was exploded by the arrival of

cars and trucks. The development of rural free mail delivery made it possible for customers to order

directly from catalogues and bypass the nearby town‘s merchants. The result of these factors and the

attraction of life in the big city produced a great rural to urban migration that dramatically reduced the

need for urban functions in small towns. Those places with special features were able to grow but most

towns did not expand beyond their original plats. The major exception to this pattern is the rise of resort

and retirement

communities that

are located in

beautiful landscapes

with access to

freeways.

The impact of the

coming of railroads

on the urban system

is clearly shown by

the relationship

between Litchfield

and nearby Forest

City. Litchfield,

now the county seat

of Mower County

located in the prime

agricultural land of

west central

Minnesota a few

miles beyond the

edge of the Big

Woods, was platted by the St Paul and Pacific Railroad in 1869. Named after a family of financiers and

railroad executives, Litchfield took over the status of county seat from the village of Forest City, located

about four miles to the northeast. Forest City was platted as a waterpower site on the Middle Fork of the

Crow River and had a sawmill, two flourmills, the first post office in the county, and the government land

office. Bypassed by the railroad, the village could not survive and was eventually unincorporated.

Litchfield on the other hand prospered, and five years after the original plat had been filed, several

suburban additions were added. This design of Litchfield is the more common perpendicular main street

design. In this case Sibley crosses the tracks next to the depot. Like most county seats in towns developed

by the railroad, the courthouse is outside of the town center, and the public squares are located to serve all

sections of the town.

On the cost of farm equipment today:

Depending on the horsepower, tillage capacity, tech features, etc., a new tractor runs from $225,000 to

$495,000.

For a combine look at $265,000 to $350,000. Add corn head, bean head, etc. and for sure you are over

$450,000 for the total cost.

A John Deere DB120 planter runs $345,000. This unit has the capacity to plant 90 to 100 acres per hour

or two sections of land in a long day. It has a 125-bushel seed capacity. Compare that to the sod-busting

early years!

First District Association Cheese Plant (Map 13, p 63, map 14 p 64 and Map 24 p 74)

When railroads reached into the countryside in the 19th century, farmers near tracks could ship their fresh

milk to the cities and something called an urban milkshed, analogous to a watershed, was created.

Farmers outside the milkshed had to convert their milk to butter or cheese so as to have a product that

could be ship to distant markets. Because butter and cheese produced on farmstead was uneven quality,

farmers joined together to form dairy cooperatives or cooperative creameries and cheese factories for the

making and marketing of their products. These have very effective and today CHS, a cooperative based in

Inver Grove Heights, and Land O Lakes, a cooperative based in Shoreview, are among the largest

agribusinesses in the nation.

First District Association is an independent dairy cooperative. Their mission is to maximize returns for

producers and employees through innovation and by providing progressive quality products to a global

market. First District played a prominent role and has a very distinct and proud history in the birth and

formation of the modern dairy cooperative in this nation.

From its beginning, the Litchfield Creamery was known for the consistently high quality of its butter, and

its efficiency and excellent service. The Litchfield Creamery was regarded as one of the top three

creameries in Minnesota. In 1920, the Meeker County Creamery Association was formed. This

association pioneered the effort to get the best prices for its products through cooperative‘s purchasing,

marketing, shipping and stressing quality above all. In 1921, it became the Minnesota Cooperative

Creamery Association.

The Minnesota Association began by setting specifications to insure quality and uniformity for sweet

cream butter. The 24 creameries of Unit #1 (formerly Meeker County Creamery) became First District

Association. In 1924, the Minnesota Cooperative Creameries Association began marketing the sweet

cream butter under the name ―Land O‘ Lakes‖. In March of 1926, the Minnesota Cooperatives

Creameries Association was renamed Land O‘ Lakes Creameries Inc. In later years, First District

Association began marketing its own products and in 1985 adopted the ―Fieldgate‖ brand and logo.

Atwater Ethanol Plant

(maps 2 p 52, map 3 p 53 map22 p72)

General ethanol - Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007: Signed into law in December of 2007,

this act called for greater use of biofuels like ethanol and more energy efficient homes, cars and

appliances. The farm-friendly Energy Act created a five-fold increase in the minimum requirements for

biofuels use, up from the current level of 7.5 billion gallons annually to 36 billion gallons a year by 2022.

This includes a 1 billion-gallon mandate for biodiesel. The law also says that no more than 15 billion

gallons of biofuel can come from corn-based ethanol, in part due to concerns about food prices.

Currently the U. S. uses 4.7 billion bushels of corn to produce 13 billion gallons of ethanol annually.

Total U.S. corn production is about 13 billion bushels annually.

Minnesota Ethanol - Currently, Minnesota has 19 ethanol plants in operation. Most of them have come

―on line‖ since 1990, with about half being farmer-owned cooperatives or LLC‘s. Combined, they use

406 million bushels of corn to produce 1.1 billion gallons of ethanol annually. The 406 million bushels

represents about 28% of Minnesota‘s total corn production. Total impact is roughly $2.27 billion and

4,300 jobs (direct and indirect impact).

Bushmills Ethanol, Inc. is a cooperative made up of 415 farmers with an interest in making an economic

impact in their regional community. Bushmills is a dry mill plant that began running on December 30,

2005. The plant produces 49 million gallons of ethanol per year, using about 18 million bushels of corn.

Ethanol production from corn would not be an economic possibility if American agribusiness had not

produced a high yield of corn. The first major breakthrough in corn genetics was the development of

hybrid corn by the Dekalb Seed Company of Dekalb Illinois.

The hybrid was developed by cross-pollinated strains of corn to combine the best features of each.

Although the rich soils of the corn belt could produce about 40 bushels of corn with only crop rotation

and the application of manure, the hybrids offer a much high potential, generally tripling the yield per

acre with the application of anhydrous ammonia for nitrogen, and the use of herbicides and insecticides.

As can be seen from the map below farmers quickly changed over to hybrid.

The green winged cob of corn on the Dekalb logo is an

indication of how the farmers could pay off their

mortgages and other debts by shifting to this brand of

hybrid corn.

Today plant geneticists have genetically modified corn to include the Bt gene (Bacillus thruringiensis)

into corn to suppress corn borers. Other genes make the crops ―round up ready‖ so they can better

withstand the application of herbicides. Thus, the corn belt is able to produce the sugar needed for the

soft drink based diets of Americans, the feed for livestock, and the fuel for our cars. None of this would

have been possible at 40 bushels an acre.

Return on Highway 12 from Atwater to Meeker County Rd 24 in Litchfield

Go North on CR 24 to Forest City and CR 2

Forest City

Forest City Township, on the west border of the Big Woods, organized April 5, 1858, received the name

of its village, platted in the summer of 1857, which was the county seat until the autumn of 1869, being

then succeeded by Litchfield. The village was originally intended to be in Harvey Township but was

platted in Forest City, section 17, after a post office was established there in 1856 on Walter C. Bacon's

farm. It was the first post office in the county; the post office discontinued in 1907. The village was

incorporated on May 19, 1857, but later unincorporated.

Go north CR2 to Cold Spring and MN 23

Stearns County – What makes Stearns County such a leader in agriculture? For example, in 2008, they

were a leading county in the following: #1 in total farm cash receipts and in livestock farm receipts, in

oats, in all hay, in cattle and calves, in milk cows and milk production; #4 in dry edible beans; #6 in

barley and beef cows.

So, there are many reasons for why Stearns County is a leader in agriculture:

They have a strong farmland preservation policy that allows for only 1 homestead per 160 acres

compared to 1 per 40 acres in Dakota County. This promotes family farms and keeps this land in

production over time.

They have a good transportation infrastructure.

The climate allows farmers to still raise good corn, as they are not too far north.

They promote diversity in their agriculture. Note the mix of both plants and animals in the #1 ranking

list above.

Quality land and topography is conducive to production.

Watkins

St. Anthony Catholic Church 1912 notice the large old mill no longer in operation

This stretch of road has some big dairy farms. It is a mix of older farms and one very up-to-date

operation, Lanwehr Dairy. It is an example of all enclosed milking. It has its own trucks for hauling. This

family run dairy farm is owned by Dennis Lanwehr, in partnership with his son and lead hired man.

Dennis loves a good challenge and has much pride in having a quality operation and likes to keep the

farm “looking like new.” Dennis has been milking 35 years, with his dad the original owner. In 2000 they

expanded from 150 cows to the current herd of 750. They have the capacity to increase to 1,300 cows but

Dennis says that will probably never happen. The operation is supported by 600-700 acres of alfalfa and

corn on rotation. The farm does purchase about 30% of needed feed. The farm‟s milk is sent to First

District Association. The milking operation is a parlor-type with slatted floors for manure disposal. Their

manure storage holds 5 million gallons under the milking facility. There are eleven employees, mostly

Hispanic. Dennis said if his Hispanic labor was ever forced to leave there would be a dairy farm for sale!

Cross the Sauk River

Power Lines - One of the greatest changes in the rural landscape was the connection of all rural people to

the national electric power grid. This process was a difficult struggle that lasted two full generations.

Because the private electric utilities refused to serve the rural landscape, it was necessary to develop a

public power system. Rural electrification, therefore, was not just a geographic question of getting the

supply to the demand; it was embroiled in the arguments over public versus private control. The politics

were vicious. Although there was great pent-up demand for the power, the Roosevelt Administration did

not bow to pressure from congressmen who had known the hardscrabble life on farms in the south and

Midwest, until 1935. The fundamental policy decisions were not resolved until the late 1940s, however.

Although the big farms and irrigated operations along the west coast states were served by private utilities

in the 1920s, the situation was entirely different elsewhere. In 1930, the north central states averaged

13% electrified, while in the south only 2% of rural houses and farms were electrified. These households

experienced a life without convenience. They relied on hand labor and animal power with only a few

having had cars and tractors. Before World War II only 10% of farms in the United States had electricity.

Because the private sector was unwilling to make an investment in lines and equipment necessary for

extending service to rural areas little was done other than to develop a few showcase projects. One of

these was in Red Wing, where Northern States Power extended service to sixteen farms near an existing

power line. The experiment paid for itself, although electric power‘s ability to increase profits on dairy

farms was not proven conclusively. There were other attempts to prove to the utilities the profitability of

the rural market, but these efforts were discredited. A series of corrupt university faculty were hired by

utilities to be expert witnesses against rural electrification. A.E. Stewart, a professor of Agricultural

Engineering at the University of Minnesota, was a notorious figure in this effort. His published

pamphlets and other materials were filled with falsehoods reported as facts. He was actually dismissed

from the University in disgrace, but easily found employment with a power company.

The leaders of the agricultural sector insisted that service should be provided and turned from the private

sector to cooperatives. It appears that the Stony Run Light and Power Company at Granite Falls,

Minnesota established in 1914, was the first power co-op in the United States. Other sorts of co-ops were

proving the vitality of the organization so leaders like Senator George Norris of Nebraska, looked to them

for the answer. Change came with Morris L. Cooke, a reformer who fought at the national level. He was

hired by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) as a consultant in the Public Works Administration

(PWA) to advise the President on conservation and power issues. FDR agreed that every home and farm

should have electric service but he would not commit to providing it. Things changed when the

Tennessee Valley Authority‘s experience with power co-ops proved to be successful and the agriculture

lobbying groups put pressure on the administration to do something about the lack of power. As a result,

in 1935, FDR established the Rural Electrification Authority (REA) within PWA to promote employment

by working on power lines. As a relief agency, REA had to spend 25% of its budget on labor, of which

all but 10 percent had to come from unemployment rolls. This crippled the agency, so Cooke decided the

REA could best function by not building lines directly, but instead should finance the projects of others.

They tried unsuccessfully to work with the private sector and, as a last resort, dealt with rural co-ops. The

REA staff not only funded co-ops, it also advised farmers on how to organize and manage their

operations. In 1936, REA became a permanent organization and was allocated money for ten years

through legislation authored by Senator Norris and Representative Sam Rayburn of Texas. Both men had

been reared on farms and knew the significance of the issue. The war years slowed down the progress of

electrification and by 1944, 55% of the farms in the United States were without electricity. Plans were

underway for a huge effort to remedy that situation as soon as the war ended.

President Truman, with support from the national farm organizations, pushed hard for the completion of

the task begun a decade earlier. The post war boom made the provision of power profitable for all

involved. Engineers computed that the average farm family‘s waking hours increased by ninety-one

eight-hour days when they received electricity. The first appliances purchased by farmers were typically

a radio and an iron. Incandescent lights replaced the hand held lantern and thereby decreased the time

needed to do chores by 50% and greatly increased the safety of farm work. However, surveys conducted

at the time indicated that indoor plumbing was the most popular improvement made by electricity. Nor

more trips to the outhouse and no more pumping and carrying buckets of water. After sundown, glowing

yard lights in all rural homes indicated the success of the efforts to electrify rural America. It could be the

most significant technologic change for rural life in the United States since the steel plow and gasoline

engine.

North on MN 23 to St Cloud

Cold Spring

On the left granite quarries can be seen from the highway (just before Cty 47)

Several companies that manufacture granite products can on the left. On a previous visit to one of these

plants we were told that it was cheaper to send their raw granite to China and have it polished and

returned than to do the polishing themselves

Cold Spring is the home of the Cold Spring Granite Company which operates five manufacturing

locations and more than 30 granite quarries worldwide

Granite Quarries - There are several granite outcrops and quarries around St Cloud. The granites were

upwelling of rock into the base of a mountain range that existed in this region about 1,850 million years

ago. They came after the actually mountain building and date from 1.7 bil years to 1.73 billion years ago.

Several miles of rock was eroded away to reveal these outcrops. In the mid 1800's most of the commercial

granite in the US came from New Hampshire and other rocky areas of the East. The market for granite

was relatively small in the sparsely settled Midwest, and transportation costs made it difficult for

Minnesota companies to compete for work in the eastern cities. The first quarry was developed in 1868 to

provide stone for the construction of the Minnesota State Reformatory. Many quarries failed but others

survived as new uses for granite were developed. Prosperity came to the St. Cloud area quarries in the

1890's when monument work began to replace paving, bridge, and foundation blocks as their principal

products.

The "busy, gritty, granite city," as St. Cloud came to call itself, continues to be a major supplier of

granite. Prized now more for its beauty than its strength, granite quarried near here was used in the State

Capitol and the History Center in St. Paul.

Gold'n Plump Poultry

The largest chicken producer in the upper Midwestern United States this privately held company operates

three production facilities and processes more than seven million pounds of chicken per week. With more

than $200 million in sales, Gold'n Plump distributes a vast array of chicken products, including fresh tray-

packed meat to fully seasoned and cooked entrees. The company markets its chicken through grocery

stores, delis, and restaurants in 23 states and has expanded its operations to several international markets

including the Far East. Since 1982 Gold'n Plump's sales have risen tenfold.

E. M. Helgeson and an early partner opened the St. Cloud Hatchery in a St. Cloud, Minnesota livery

stable. The original hatched chicks and sold them through direct-mail catalogs beginning in 1926. At the

time most chicks were hatched on family farms the old-fashioned way, with brood hens hatching chicks at

irregular intervals. St. Cloud Hatchery had incubators in the basement and second floors of its St. Cloud

building and hatched vast numbers of chicks that were then ordered by customers directly or through the

pages of the Sears catalog. Carton loads of chicks were delivered by the U.S. mail throughout the region.

In order to help customers finance their purchases, during the Depression Helgeson made independent

financing available. When his financing business flourished he officially began what was to become one

of the most successful area loan companies. Liberty Loan and Thrift Corporation became the hatchery's

first wholly owned subsidiary in 1934. In the early 1930s the company took on the name Jack Frost.

Demand for Jack Frost chicks reached record levels during World War II but when the war ended the loan

company became Helgeson's greatest asset. Liberty Loan and Thrift soon became Liberty Savings Bank

and provided full-service banking to the St. Cloud region. The bank provided the necessary capital and

financial services to jumpstart the transition to a peacetime market. Helgeson's talked his father out of

liquidation and he transform St. Cloud Hatcheries to Jack Frost Farm Foods and started using eggs from

hens bred for meat production, instead of egg production.

The company negotiated a deal with Armour Foods and began to grow and process chickens. The Jack

Frost strategy was to negotiate long-term contracts with farmers in the region, setting the growers up with

specialized barns and the equipment necessary to raise premium chickens in an efficient manner.

Applying the best science of the day the company built its own farm, updated its breeder facilities,

established a feed mill to provide nutritious food and created uniformity in its farming practices. The

existing Armour plant in Cold Spring, Minnesota, served as Jack Frost's first processing factory. In the

1970s that the company turned away from in the Jack Frost name and launched fresh tray-packed chicken

parts under the name Gold'n Plump Poultry. In 1983 the business acquired the Armour processing plant in

Cold Spring, making it one of the largest employers in the city.

The labor market is tight for processors in the industry and many new immigrants comprise much of the

company's labor force. In the last three decades there has been a transition from Asian to Hispanic and

Somali.

Gold'n Plump's innovations include providing nutritional labeling on its packaging, freshness date-code

its products and was the first major chicken producer to offer a line of certified organic chicken in a fresh

meat case. In 1999 the company introduced the industry's first full line of fresh fixed-weight products. By

selling fresh chicken by set weight, merchandisers no longer had to weigh and hand re-wrap packages

before they were placed in freezer cases. In addition the company sells variety of fresh and frozen and

precooked chicken products to its offerings. Gold'n Plump byproducts were a large part of the company's

earnings, with roughly 15 percent of its business resulting from other manufacturers' use of Gold'n

Plump's scrap. In 2001 Gold'n Plump's market area extended into 23 western and Midwestern states. A

negotiated deal with Target expanded the company‘s territory expanding into areas where SuperTarget

stores were developed. Gold'n Plump Poultry plans to continue to adapt its products to the challenges of

the contemporary marketplace.

St. Cloud

Day Two

Follow US 10 to Clear Lake. Turn Rt. on MN 24

Go south on MN 24 to 120th

St

Go west o n 120th

Street which becomes Co 144 west of the Crow River

Follow Cr 144 to Cr 44 Turn left on CR 44 to Dairy Farm on left.

J & J Dairy Farm 1646 County Road 44, South Haven, MN

This mid-size dairy farm is run by Howard Johnson and his sons Jamison and Joe. The Johnsons have

been farming for nine years. The dairy includes about 220 milking cows at their facility at South Haven,

and a heifer grow-out facility near Becker. They have one hired hand. It is our understanding the

Johnsons bought this farm from an absentee owner who had let the dairy herd get run down and,

essentially, was getting very poor milk output when purchased. They have worked to build the herd back

up over the last few years.

Recently, Johnson Dairy received a $30,000 „livestock development‟ grant from the Minnesota

Department of Agriculture to upgrade and modernize their dairy operation. This grant was part of a

$900,000 facility enhancement. They upgraded to a free stall barn and installed four robotic milking units

(at $175,000 per unit). They also did work on their feed system and the manure holding facility, and

installed automatic scrappers in the barn. Cows first passed through the robot system in October of 2009.

Reasons for upgrading their facility and getting the MDA livestock grant: 1) to build a sustainable

operation for the next generation farmer (Joe); 2) to expand their manure storage so they did not have to

haul manure on a daily basis; 3) to increase labor efficiency and consistency thus enhancing profitability;

4) to decrease water usage; and 5) design their upgrade to be mindful of the sensitive watershed and

recreational lake nearby.

Milking by hand made it impossible for farmers to have large herds and the capacity to produce feed for

the livestock on the small farms was limited. As a result the region had a dense network of roads,

cooperative creameries and small towns to serve the farmers. All that changed with the development of

high yield crops like hybrid corn and superior strains of dairy cattle that can produce more milk than their

predecessors. With higher-yielding corn and better transportation systems and automatic milking

machines farmers shifted away from the small breeds of cattle such as Jersey., Gurneys, Shorthorn Airy

shire and Brown Swiss that produce milk with high butter fat which is best for butter and cheese. They

increased the size of their herds and turned to the larger black and white Holsteins who with rich diets

produce enormous amounts of milk. Average milk production per cow increased from 8,000 per year in

1960 to 17,000 pounds per year in 2000, with some cows producing over twice the average.

Because cows need to be milked at least twice a day when lactating, dairy farming is one of the most

labor-intensive forms of agriculture. Farmers made up for declining family size by shifting to milking

machines and then even more automated milking parlors. But labor remains a major limiting factor on

milk production.

Automatic Milking Systems (Milking robots) originated in Europe and have been used there for about a

decade. They began to be adopted in USA about five years ago. Robots reduce the labor costs of milking

by about 1/3 and turn labor costs into fixed costs. Production increases and cow become more docile in

the more relaxed environment.

Maps 13

Go North on CR 44 to CR 144 turn right on CR 144 which becomes 120th

St. to MN 24.

Turn left on MN 24 and go North to Clear Lake

At Clear Lake turn right on US 10 return Via Cargill Research Campus

Cargill Animal Nutrition Plant

Cargill has a long history in the animal nutrition business. William W. "Will" Cargill, who started Cargill,

Inc., in 1865, started selling feed in Lacrosse, Wisconsin about 1884. In the mid-1930s, John MacMillan,

Jr., started selling manufactured feed under the Cargill name when he opened a new facility in Conrad,

Montana.

In March 1941, Cargill purchased a facility just west of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and began marketing

"Cargill Feeds" and "Du-All Feeds." At that time, there were two distinct groups within Cargill marketing

feeds. In some areas, they were in direct competition with each other, a scenario that would be repeated

several more times in Cargill's history as they built brands designed to serve diverse groups of customers.

Cargill, Inc. got serious about the feed business in October, 1945, when the company acquired Nutrena

Mills, Incorporated, a company that had been in business since 1920 and, at that time, had the capacity to

produce a total of 23,000 tons of feed per month in its three feed mills. The purchase price was $1.6

million. Back then it was common to sell feed in "pretty print" feed bags so the material from the bags

could be used to make tablecloths and clothing.

Cargill‟s feed business has grown substantially since 1945 through both acquisitions and innovations that

have helped Cargill reach more customers around the globe. The focus of Cargill's acquisitions has been

to build its knowledge and reach by gaining access to experienced, dedicated people with a passion for the

animal nutrition business, not simply to own more feed mills. (Excerpted from Cargill website,

www.cargillanimalnutrition.com)

The National Freeway Network - The building of the national freeway network increased the rate of the

nation‘s economic development, which enhanced the speed and mobility of motorists and truckers, and

gave opportunities for millions of urban residents to move from central cities to suburban communities.

This all happened according to the plan. Other aspects of freeway construction have attracted a storm of

protest, however. Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower all favored a national superhighway

system. They and their advisors had to respond to the tremendous pressure put on government to do

something about the horrors of traffic congestion. In 1905, there were 78,000 motor vehicles registered in

the United States, and everyone looked to cars and trucks as the saviors of society. The trucks would free

the farmer, and cars would liberate the middle-class from the miseries of riding mass transit. Streetcar

riders were said to be packed in like sardines and lubricated with perspiration, while pickpockets and all

sorts of undesirables infested the mass transit system. The greater population was calling for comfort and

safety. The car offered a quiet, clean and safe alternative. In 1910, only five years later, there were

458,000 vehicles. Registered numbers kept climbing and reached 27.4 million in 1940. The Federal

Government tried to organize the maze of roads in 1925. That year it was determined that each state

would designate 7% of its road system for federal highways in exchange for financial support. In addition,

it was determined that the national highways would be numbered – north/south routes got odd numbers:

east/west routes got even.

There were several pressure groups lobbying for better roads, some wanting to get the farmer out of the

mud and build farm-to-market roads. Others wanted to improve intercity transport so their trucking

industry could become more effective. Still others were interested in getting better roads in urban areas

where most of the cars were. In the 1930s, people were impressed by the autobahn constructed in

Germany, and a handful of toll roads were built following that design. FDR thought a road building

program would benefit the American economy, but later determined he could get more development by

investing in other sectors of the economy. Nonetheless, the Works Progress Authority was very active in

road construction. When it became clear that the United States would enter the Second World War,

defense issues dominated all federal activities in highway planning and building. During the Truman and

Eisenhower Administrations, the politics of highway were fierce and the groups uncompromising.

Agriculturalists and small-town politicians wanted better secondary roads. Truckers did not want to waste

money on secondary roads, but rather wanted better truck highways. Planners wanted to use the roads for

urban renewal and social control. Business leaders wanted highway improvement that would promote

economic development. The railroad interests were opposed to all new programs. All wanted the other

parties to pay for it.

Eisenhower was the key to finally developing a plan. He kept insisting that an agreement could be found,

and pressured his cabinet and Congressional leaders for a solution. In 1958, Congressman Hale Boggs

from Louisiana and George Fallon of Maryland put the package together, and the Interstate Highway Act

of 1956 was passed. The highway engineers who had controlled road construction in the past were given

the authority to build the system. Because the system would be funded by user taxes, priority was given to

places with high traffic. The process was remarkably free from the sort of pork-barrel politics that often

dominated public works programs.

In 1965, criticism of the freeway system reached a crescendo. It was fashionable to criticize all phases of

government activity during the 1960s, but freeway opponents were not just anti-establishment radicals.

They wanted to resolve issues that were a part of early discussions of highway construction, but were

ignored during the rush to get the system built. There is no doubt that the national freeway system

produced greater economic development, dramatically increased the mobility of motorists and truckers

and enabled millions of people to move from the inner neighborhoods to the suburbs. By the mid 1960s,

the rules of the game had changed. Americans were concerned about the environmental impact by the

great gashes through the landscape made by the highway contractors and the atmospheric pollution

caused by the traffic. Urban residents complained bitterly about the routes that appeared to favor the

comfort and convenience of suburbanites at the expense of the neighborhoods occupied by the poor and

African Americans. President Nixon‘s administration wrested control of the freeway building from the

engineers and introduced new issues to the discussions of route selection.

In 1970, President Nixon was determined to try to develop mass transit options for urban residents. In a

message to Congress he said for the poor, aged, young and disabled, adequate public transit is the only

answer. He was going to have federal programs shoulder the burden of developing mass transit on the

scale of the highway program. In 1976 funds from the highway trust fund were finally made available for

mass transit. In the mid-1970s, issues of localism took over the highway construction business and the

national highway program was overwhelmed. During the 1980s, opponents of freeways were able to stop

the construction of particularly objectionable sections of the freeway network.

There is no doubt that the freeways solved the issue of intercity and interstate transportation, but the

growth of population and numbers of motor vehicles have overwhelmed the freeway system in most

urban areas. In the 1980s, real estate developers were complaining bitterly about traffic congestion to the

suburbs. The political leaders of Minnesota have concluded to end freeway construction for the

foreseeable future. Issues of sprawl and sustainability of communities have forced planners to rethink the

freeways as a solution for urban transportation problems. The interstate system of about 42.4 thousand

miles carries half of the semi-trailer traffic, about 25% of the total truck traffic, and about one fifth of the

total traffic in the country. What will be next?

As we drive along this corridor, we will see the expanding edge of one of the worst (or is it best?)

examples of urban sprawl in the United States. Only Kansas City and Phoenix have lower densities than

the Twin Cities. While we can see ample evidence along the right-of-way, hidden from our view are

hundreds of new houses and small developments along the secondary roads of these counties. Groups like

the Land Stewardship Project and 1000 Friends of Minnesota have worked with legislators to try to

redirect state policies that promote unlimited expansion. The Minnesota Livable Communities Act is the

latest attempt to end practices that promote sprawl. The outer edge of the Metropolitan Urban Services

Area, or MUSA Line, demarcates the outer limit for the sewer system. This is not a greenbelt plan that

prohibits continued urbanization, but it has a similar impact. Additional efforts are underway to develop

some sort of land use planning that will work outside the MUSA Line.

In December of 1997, the State of Minnesota granted a franchise for the laying of an optic fiber system

along the interstate. Once completed, the new communication system will be able to carry fantastic

amounts of data at the speed of light. Perhaps this new system will decrease the need for people to

agglomerate. If linked via this system, people may be able to telecommute, and the small towns of the

upper Midwest may become increasingly popular. All indications point toward a continued growth in

information management industries. Perhaps the optic fibers will have an impact on the middle landscape

comparable to the electrification of the 1930s.

Epilogue We have returned to our beginning. In the course of our trip we have seen the landscape’s record of the

progress of the epochs of urbanization, changes in transportation and communication, human genius and

perseverance and the impact of those human hands. The practiced eye can read the landscape like a

book. Like an artist’s canvas or sculpture, the land reflects both the underlying structure of the medium

or environment, as well as human vision and skill.

Further Reading

John Fraser Hart The Land that Feeds Us New York: W. W. Norton, 1991

John Fraser Hart The Changing Scale of American Agriculture Charlottesville: University of Virginia

Press, 2003