The Project Gutenberg eBook, Agricultural Implements and Machines in the Collection of the National Museum of History and Technology, by John T. Schlebecker

Title: Agricultural Implements and Machines in the Collection of the National Museum of History and Technology

Smithsonian Studies in History and Technology, No. 17

Author: John T. Schlebecker

Release Date: November 25, 2008 [eBook #27327]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

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SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY · NUMBER 17

Agricultural Implements and Machines

in the Collection of the

National Museum of History and Technology

by

JOHN T. SCHLEBECKER

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION PRESS
City of Washington
1972

SERIAL PUBLICATIONS OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

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Smithsonian Annals of Flight
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Smithsonian Contributions to Astrophysics
Smithsonian Contributions to Botany
Smithsonian Contributions to the Earth Sciences
Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology
Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology
Smithsonian Studies in History and Technology

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Smithsonian Institution

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Contents

Agricultural Implements and Machines

in the Collection of the

National Museum of History and Technology

The Author: John T. Schlebecker is curator in charge, Division of Agriculture and Mining, Museum of History and Technology, Smithsonian Institution.

Introduction

The art and science of agriculture embrace most intentional human efforts to control biological activity so as to produce plants and animals of the sort wanted, when wanted. Rubber plantations, cattle ranches, vegetable gardens, dairy farms, tree farms, and a host of similar enterprises all represent human efforts to compel nature to serve man. Those who undertake agriculture have had, from time immemorial, a variety of names, not all of them complimentary. The people involved in attempted biological control have been called farmers, planters, ranchers, and peasants. Farmers carry on a complicated business in which they use a variety of tools, implements, and machines. They also employ land, chemicals, water, plants, and animals. Their business, however, focuses on living things. No matter how crude their attempts, or how uncertain their successes, those who try to grow living things rank as agriculturalists.[1]

For the most part, a museum cannot show the essential biological aspects of agriculture. Agricultural production involves the farmer in the course of nature in its seasons, and in the peculiar laws of living things. In these