USDA history

Content Description

The USDA National Commission on Small Farms Records include administrative files; transcripts (paper, tape, and disk) of public hearings; letters from farmers; executive correspondence; memoranda; drafts and a final copy of "Report of the USDA National Commission on Small Farms: A Time to Act"; letterhead and design for final report; email requests for copies of the NCSF report; computer disks containing small farm documents; NCSF committee reports; and miscellaneous resource documents.

Content Description

The USDA Office for Small-Scale Agriculture Records consist of letters, memoranda, correspondence, reports, newspapers, newsletters, and publications.

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The USDA Office of the Secretary Memoranda consist of memoranda and circulars (1918-1979), general orders (1897-1913), plant and operations memoranda (1936-1937), special orders (1927-1934, 1939), technical advisory board circulars (1938-1940), USDA Defense and Agriculture Series (1940-1941), and USDA Defense Exercise memoranda (1960-1970s).

Content Description

The USDA Official Standards of the United States for Grades of Wool contains wool samples that document the 12 wool grade standards established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the 1920s, and the 13 standards for the 1940s. The standards are based on the fineness or diameter of the wool fiber. Samples show the maximum diameter or fineness of fiber for each of the grades. The collection includes wool standards for 1926, 1928, 1940, and 1966.

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The USDA Pear Psylla Control Investigations Lantern Slide Collection contains color lantern slides produced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, Fruit Insect Investigations, Pear Psylla Control. There are 13 slides of pears infected with pear psylla, 3 slides of maps, and a slide showing a chart of spraying operations in counties of Washington, Idaho, and Oregon in 1941.

Content Description The USDA Pink Bollworm Project Photograph Collection documents the work of the Plant Quarantine and Control Administration on bollworm detection, prevention, and quarantine measures. Photographs show scientists' processes for cleansing the soil of bollworms, views of infested fields, and the effects of bollworms on cotton and other plants. There are photographs of inspection sites in Texas and New Mexico; field clean-up activities in Arizona; and an album of colleagues' portraits presented...

Content Description The USDA Plant Introduction Station Records consist of correspondence, notes, reports, plant inventories, photographs, lists, books, and drawings from files compiled by the Bureau of Plant Industry's plant introduction garden in Miami, Florida. The bulk of the files contain primarily notes, correspondence, clippings, and pamphlets on the subject of mangoes. There is also original and copy correspondence between David G. Fairchild and personnel at the Miami station. Other records include...

Content Description The USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection contains approximately 7,000 watercolor paintings of fruit and nut specimens received by the U.S. Department of Agriculture from growers and plant explorers. The paintings were created by artists employed by the USDA Division of Pomology from 1888 to the 1930s. Credit information was written by the artist on each watercolor, and typically includes the name of the property owner, county, city, and state or country where the specimen was grown. Many...

Content Description The USDA Potato Research Collection consists primarily of photographs used for research studies, which document labs, fields, experiments, types of potatoes, equipment, personnel, and staff portraits. Various locations are represented, including: Potomac Flats in Washington, D.C.; Honeoye Falls, New York; the Colorado Potato Experiment Station; and locations in Idaho, Oregon, California, Minnesota, Michigan, South Dakota, and Texas. Formats are mostly black and white photograph prints, but...

Content Description The USDA Radio and Television Service Celebrity Pesticide Spots Audio Recordings consist of four 33-1/3 RPM phonograph records containing public service announcements about the safe use of pesticides. The recordings were produced by USDA Office of Information, Radio and Television Service, Washington, D.C. There are two unique recordings, and the remaining two are duplicates. Celebrity voices include Minnie Pearl, Art Carney, Arthur Godfrey, and Eva Gabor. Additionally, there is a typescript...