Nice one, CJ On 4/18/10, CeJ <[email protected]> wrote: > I always nominate GW Carver as the greatest American because as a kid > I survived on peanut butter sandwiches. With the collapse of Southern > agriculture, the other side of any transformation is what happened to > Southern agriculture. No person's work did more to help smallholder > type Southern farmers, both black and white. We shouldn't be surprised > that a son of slaves should prove to be such a genius. At the end of > the Civil War, in many places it was blacks who held much of the > cultural body of skills and practical knowledge in farming, growing > food, cooking, producing 'homespun' clothes, and the skilled trades. > His gardening and dietary advice (much of it based on what he had > learned growing up) probably helped relieve the South of its > widespread pellagra as much as any other measure (poor whites and > blacks would often eat a diet that consisted of corn, fat back and > molasses, which is a recipe for pellagra). He also did important work > on issues that ultimately helped the South's textile industries as > well as the sort of manufactured foods we take for granted, like > ketchup and mayonnaise. Post-moderns might think that homecanning is > something that has been around since the beginning of the country, but > the Mason jar is a revolution of the mid 19th century. Home canning > was actually a technique that Carver helped to promote and > disseminate. His crop rotation methods saved the farming south. > > > > http://inventors.about.com/od/stepbystep/ss/Hard_Times.htm > > http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blfarm.htm#rotation > > In the United States, George Washington Carver brought his science of > crop rotation to the farmers and saved the farming resources of the > south. > > http://inventors.about.com/od/cstartinventors/a/GWC.htm > > Early Life > George Washington Carver was born in 1864 near Diamond Grove, Missouri > on the farm of Moses Carver. He was born into difficult and changing > times near the end of the Civil War. The infant George and his mother > kidnapped by Confederate night-raiders and possibly sent away to > Arkansas. Moses Carver found and reclaimed George after the war but > his mother had disappeared forever. The identity of Carver's father > remains unknown, although he believed his father was a slave from a > neighboring farm. Moses and Susan Carver reared George and his brother > as their own children. It was on the Moses' farm where George first > fell in love with nature, where he earned the nickname 'The Plant > Doctor' and collected in earnest all manner of rocks and plants. > > Education > He began his formal education at the age of twelve, which required him > to leave the home of his adopted parents. Schools segregated by race > at that time with no school available for black students near Carver's > home. He moved to Newton County in southwest Missouri, where he worked > as a farm hand and studied in a one-room schoolhouse. He went on to > attend Minneapolis High School in Kansas. College entrance was a > struggle, again because of racial barriers. At the age of thirty, > Carver gained acceptance to Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, where > he was the first black student. Carver had to study piano and art and > the college did not offer science classes. Intent on a science career, > he later transferred to Iowa Agricultural College (now Iowa State > University) in 1891, where he gained a Bachelor of Science degree in > 1894 and a Master of Science degree in bacterial botany and > agriculture in 1897. Carver became a member of the faculty of the Iowa > State College of Agriculture and Mechanics (the first black faculty > member for Iowa College), teaching classes about soil conservation and > chemurgy. > > Tuskegee > In 1897, Booker T. Washington, founder of the Tuskegee Normal and > Industrial Institute for Negroes, convinced Carver to come south and > serve as the school's Director of Agriculture. Carver remained on the > faculty until his death in 1943. > > Read the pamphlet - Help For Hard Times - written by Carver and > forwarded by Booker T. Washington as an example of the educational > material provided to farmers by Carver. > > At Tuskegee Carver developed his crop rotation method, which > revolutionized southern agriculture. He educated the farmers to > alternate the soil-depleting cotton crops with soil-enriching crops > such as; peanuts, peas, soybeans, sweet potato, and pecans. > > Helping the South > America's economy was heavily dependent upon agriculture during this > era making Carver's achievements very significant. Decades of growing > only cotton and tobacco had depleted the soils of the southern area of > the United States of America. The economy of the farming south had > been devastated by years of civil war and the fact that the cotton and > tobacco plantations could no longer (ab)use slave labor. Carver > convinced the southern farmers to follow his suggestions and helped > the region to recover. > > Carver also worked at developing industrial applications from > agricultural crops. During World War I, he found a way to replace the > textile dyes formerly imported from Europe. He produced dyes of 500 > different shades of dye and he was responsible for the invention in > 1927 of a process for producing paints and stains from soybeans. For > that he received three separate patents. > > http://www.sdabol.org/answerer/answerer5.htm > > > Macon County then, like most of the South, grew cotton and little > else. To save the soil > > Answerer Book 5 16 > > and add to farm income Carver advocated growing sweet potatoes and > peanuts. Today the sweet potato is a southern farm staple; and our > peanut farmers of the South will this year get close to $70,000,000 > for their crop. More than any other person, Dr. Carver has helped to > break cotton's throttle-hold on southern agriculture. > > In his Macon County pioneering, he found scarcely any vegetable > gardens, few pigs, chickens or cows. Pellegra--produced by an > unbalance diet--was widespread. He therefore preached kitchen gardens > and worked out recipes showing how to prepare and preserve > vegetables. Today, according to the county agricultural agent, there > is hardly a Negro farm in Macon County without a vegetable garden, > pigs, chickens and at least one cow. Pellagra has virtually > disappeared. > > Dr. Carver insists that the start-where-you-are formula will work > anywhere. Some years ago he spoke before a Negro organization in > Tulsa, Oklahoma. For illustrative materials he spent an early morning > on Sand Pipe Hill, near Tulsa. He came back with 27 plants, all > containing medicinal properties. > > "Then," he said, "I went to Ferguson's Drugstore and bought seven > patent medicines containing certain elements found in those plants. > The medicines had been shipped in from New York. They should have come > from Sand Pipe Hill. 'Where there is no vision the people perish.'" > * * * > > He has been called--this man whose parents were Negro slaves--"the > first and greatest chemurgist." Million-dollar businesses have been > built all or in part from his discoveries--largest among them being a > $200,000,000 a year peanut industry. His crop-pioneering puts many > millions every year into the pockets of southern farmers. > > Answerer Book 5 17 > > He has been showered with honors. Thomas Edison invited him to join > his staff at $50,000 a year. Henry Ford has given him a laboratory for > wartime food research. Last June "The Progressive Farmer" gave him its > annual award for "outstanding service to southern agriculture." The > Theodore Roosevelt Medal came to him in 1939 as "a liberator to men of > the white race as well as the black." > > "What other man of our times," asked the New York Times "has done > so much for agriculture in the South?" > > _______________________________________________ > Marxism-Thaxis mailing list > [email protected] > To change your options or unsubscribe go to: > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis >
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