Once the breadbasket of North America, Pennsylvania for centuries has been a center of agricultural production and innovation. Blessed with a mild climate, abundant land, and rich soils, "the best poor man's country" witnessed the rise of scientific agriculture and regionally specialized farming that continues to be one of the state's most important industries.
Continue the Story...
Bring this subject into focus through the following chapters. These stories take exploration of the main story further by providing more detail for you to learn and explore.
Take your students back in history with these discussions and activities for the classroom
1000 |
Circa 1000 AD, Lenape and other Native Americans are raising beans, corn, and squash |
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1609 |
The Dutch claim the Delaware Valley as part of New Netherland and begin to establish trading posts |
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1638 |
The Swedes claim the Delaware Valley as New Sweden and establish farms and trading posts |
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1681 |
William Penn receives the charter for Pennsylvania |
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1765 |
First York Fair, the oldest county fair in America |
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1782 |
Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture established by John Beale Bordley and others |
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1790 |
1790s: Grain cradle and scythe replacing sickle to harvest grain and hay in Pennsylvania |
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1792 |
John Chapman travels to the western Pennsylvania frontier to become an itinerant nurseryman |
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1795 |
Lancaster turnpike improves transportation from Philadelphia to the farms of Lancaster County |
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1797 |
Neshannock potato first cultivated by John Gilkey |
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1797 |
Philadelphia businessman Charles Newbold patents the first cast iron plow
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1809 |
Pennsylvania Society for Improving the Breeds of Cattle organized, the United States" first livestock improvement association. |
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1819 |
Jethro Wood of Scipio, New York patents an iron plow with interchangeable parts |
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1819 - 1825 |
Food canning industry begins in the United States |
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1820 |
1820s: York Imperial Apple developed by nurseryman Jonathan Jessup |
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1827 |
Pennsylvania Horticultural Society formed; today the oldest in the United States |
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1834 |
Virginian Cyrus McCormick patents his horse-drawn mechanical reaper |
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1837 |
John Deere begins to manufacture steel plows |
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1841 |
Moses and Samuel Pennock of Kennett Square patent their version of a seed drill |
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1849 |
Mixed chemical fertilizers introduced |
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1851 |
Frederick Watts becomes first president of the Pennsylvania Agricultural Society |
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1855 |
Founding of the Pennsylvania Farmers" High School (today's Penn State University) |
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1858 |
Lancaster County mechanic Joseph W. Fawkes patents the first steam plow |
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1859 |
Evan Pugh becomes president of Pennsylvania's Farmers" High School |
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1862 |
Homestead Act and the Morrill Land Grant Act passed by Congress |
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1865 - 1875 |
Gang plows and sulky plows appear on American farms |
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1871 |
Eagle Grange #1, Pennsylvania's first local Grange formed |
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1873 |
Pennsylvania State Grange organized |
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1874 |
Pennsylvania Grange holds its first picnic at Williams Grove |
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1876 |
Creation of the Pennsylvania State Board of Agriculture, the first separate state agency for the administration of the agricultural laws of the Commonwealth |
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1876 |
H. J. Heinz Company introduces its own brand of ketchup |
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1878 |
W. Atlee Burpee founds company to sell seeds through the mail
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1879 |
First state law to protect farmers against fraud and misrepresentation in the manufacture and sale of fertilizer |
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1882 |
Dietrick Lamade first publishes The Grit in Williamsport |
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1884 - 1890 |
Horse-drawn combines introduced in Pennsylvania |
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1895 |
Pennsylvania State Department of Agriculture and State Livestock Sanitary Board created |
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1896 |
First Rural Free Delivery routes in the nation are established in Pennsylvania |
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1898 - 1914 |
American agriculture enjoys renewed prosperity |
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1910 - 1915 |
Open-geared gasoline powered tractors introduced |
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1910 |
Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women established |
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1914 |
Flora Black organizes the Society of Farm Women of Pennsylvania |
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1915 - 1920 |
Enclosed geared tractors in use |
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1917 |
First Pennsylvania Farm Show held in Harrisburg |
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1925 |
Lancaster Sure Crop corn, a hybrid, emerges as the leading parent corn in the nation |
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1930 |
1930s: All-purpose, rubber tire tractors with complementary machinery in use |
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1931 |
Pennsylvania Governor Gifford Pinchot inaugurates rural road building program "to get farmers out of the mud" |
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1936 |
Pennsylvania's Northwestern Rural Electric Cooperative places its first pole in Crawford County |
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1939 |
Honey Hollow Watershed conservation area created |
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1940 |
1940s: DDT introduced as pesticide |
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1941 - 1945 |
Frozen foods introduced by Clarence Birdseye becoming popular |
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1953 |
Henry and George Landis deed their farm and museum collection to the State of Pennsylvania |
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1989 |
Pennsylvania Agricultural Land Preservation Board created |
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Edward Hicks paints "An Indian Summer View of the Farm and Stock of James C. Cornell" |
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