USDA history

Content Description The USDA Crop Fiber Research Collection contains documents relating to more than 300 genera of plants used for fiber. The materials cover the subject of natural plant fiber crops other than cotton and include information on cordage, textiles, and miscellaneous fibers as well as the products made from them. There are reprints and photocopies of fiber articles with an extensive card index, manuscripts, foreign and domestic publications, promotional brochures, reports, newspaper clippings,...

Content Description The USDA Division of Agricultural Engineering Records contain photographs, glass negatives, and acetate negatives of images relating to agricultural engineering. Some of the subjects include irrigation, drainage, farm buildings, farm power and machinery, crops and crop conditioning, harvesting, care and handling of products, road construction, and farm electrification. Additionally, there are articles on agricultural engineering and farm electrification. The collection also contains speeches...

Content Description The USDA Division of Cereal Crops and Diseases Photograph Collection contains glass and acetate negatives, as well as black and white prints. Subjects include aspects of cereal crop classification, production, utilization, farm machinery, diseases, and pests in the United States and foreign countries. Crops pictured include corn, barley, oats, sorghum, sorgo, milo, millet, wheat, flax, rice, rye, and kafir. A number of the negatives were used in the Journal of Agricultural Research, U.S....

Content Description The USDA Division of Farm Population and Rural Life Records consist of reports, manuscripts, and unpublished addresses cited in Sociology in Government: A Bibliography of the Work of the Division of Farm Population and Rural Life, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1919-1953 (Olaf Frederick Larson, Edward O. Moe, and Julie Nadine Zimmerman, Westview Press in cooperation with the American Sociological Association and the Rural Sociological Society, 1992). Also included are several additional...

Content Description The USDA Division of Land Economics Records consist of reports, correspondence, and publications relating to the work of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, Division of Land Economics. Most of the material was produced by the bureau or the division, though there is also some material from the Land Utilization Division of the Resettlement Administration. Topics include general land policy and policy planning, zoning, settlement patterns, local land utilization studies, tenancy and land...

Content Description The USDA Drug and Poisonous Plant Investigations Photograph Collection consists of black-and-white lantern slides with images from research projects conducted by the Drug and Poisonous Plant Investigations division of the Bureau of Plant Industry. Some of the slides feature images of medicinal plant gardens at various institutions across the United States. Other subjects include drug plant field plots at the USDA South Farm in Beltsville, Maryland; drug plant specimens; distribution charts...

Content Description

The USDA Engineering Division Personnel Photograph Collection consists of a photograph album with both group and individual images of Engineering Division staff members. Photographs were taken in March 1924, and include the following groups: Research, Engineering, Grazing, Forest Management, District 7, Operations, Public Relations, Lands, Forester and Branch Chiefs, and Finance and Accounts.

Content Description The USDA Extension Service Plan Exchange Records consist of plans for agricultural buildings and low-cost housing. Examples include bunkers, greenhouses, and tenant houses, as well as structures for housing and processing beef cattle, dairy cattle, horses, poultry, goats, swine, bees, and rabbits. There are also miscellaneous plans for machinery and equipment. The plans are the collective work of plan exchange engineers at U.S. land-grant universities, including Pennsylvania...

Content Description

The USDA Farmers Home Administration Farm Building Plans include compilations of house plans and heating duct layouts. There is a series of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) publications entitled "House Planning Aids." These small publications contain information about how to design and arrange various parts of a home.

Content Description The USDA Food Quality Laboratory Photograph Albums consist of three albums that document the facilities, equipment, and processes used in studies of meat production at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Beltsville (Maryland) Agricultural Research Center (BARC). Photographs show the exterior of the abattoir at BARC-East, interior views of the Meat Quality Laboratory, scientific instruments and equipment, meat grading and cutting, comparative meat samples, and exhibits. There are also...