Design Concepts For Vegetated Waterways - Historic Landmark of Agricultural Engineering Rainfall runoff causes severe gully erosion on unprotected lands and has ruined thousands of U S acres in the past. Concepts were developed at this site for vegetation-lined waterways that now safely convey runoff water from millions of acres.Engineers of the US Soil Conservation Service (SCS) initiated studies on hydraulics of vegetated waterways at an outdoor laboratory near Spartanburg, South Carolina, in 1935. Under the directions of W. O.
Agricultural & Biological
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Image Credit: Courtesy The Geograph project/Hugh Venables (CC BY-SA 2.0)
1990
The Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) was developed at the USDA National Runoff and Soil Loss Data Center at Purdue University in a national effort led by Walter H. Wischmeier and Dwight D. Smith. The USLE was published in 1965 in USDA Agriculture Handbook 282.
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Image Caption: The Universal Soil Loss Equation for estimating average annual soil erosion.2003
A = average annual soil loss (in tons/acre)
R = rainfall erosivity index
K = soil erodibility factor
LS = topographic factor
C = cropping factor
P = conservation practice factor
In 1942, University of California, Davis (UCD) biologist, Jack Hanna recognized the need for breeding tomato varieties that ripen uniformly and withstand the rigors of mechanical harvesting. In 1949, UCD agricultural engineer Coby Lorenzen and Hanna began developing a mechanical tomato harvester. Parallel efforts by others, notably those started in 1957 by agricultural engineer Bill Stout and horticulturist Stan Ries of Michigan State University, eventually resulted in several different harvesting mechanisms. In the late 1950s, UCD agricultural engineer Steven J.
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2005
First Tower Silo Designated A Historic Landmark Of Agricultural Engineering. The First Tower Silo In America Was Erected Near This Site On The Hatch Farm, One Half-Mile East Of Spring Grove, Illinois. Fred L. Hatch And His Father, Lewis Hatch, Erected This Silo In October 1873, After Fred Graduated From The Illinois Industrial University. (Now The University Of Illinois). Textbooks On Agriculture Were Scarce, And Professor Willard F. Bliss Translated French And German Pamphlets On Silage Production Wherein The Entire Corn Plant Was Buried In Pits, And This Inspired Young Hatch.
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Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/Doc Searls (CC BY 2.0)Image Caption: A modern tower silo
1984
Since 1948, over 11,000 dams and associated conservation practices in more than 2,000 watershed projects encompassing 160 million acres in 47 states have been constructed as a part of the USDA Small Watershed Program. These projects have improved the quality of life and the environment in rural communities by protecting people's lives and property, conserving soil and water resources, reducing flooding, providing economic development, recreation, and water supplies, enhancing water quality, and improving wetlands and wildlife habitat.
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2011
The object of the Red Wing project was "To determine the optimum economic uses of electricity in agriculture and to study the value of electricity in improved living conditions on the farm." Although not the first service to farms in the U.S., it was likely the first built as an experiment specifically for collecting and publishing engineering and economic data.
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2009
On June 30, 1857, James Oliver filed a patent application for chilling the wear face of cast-iron moldboard plows. While pouring molten cast iron in sand molds he circulated hot water through chillers to regulate the rate of cooling. Oliver's control of raw material content and cooling produced moldboards with a very hard surface and a softer, tough inner core for strength. Their fine textured wearing faces of uniform hardness maintained a mirror polish and resisted rust.
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2008
In 1894, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and his brother, Will Keith (W.K.) Kellogg, were making a granola type cereal for their patients in the Battle Creek Sanitarium, a general health facility in Michigan. This granola cereal was made from wheat that was boiled, rolled into a sheet, toasted, and ground. They accidentally left a batch of boiled wheat stand overnight before passing it through the rolls. The individual grains were subsequently pressed into flakes which were toasted to form the first flaked cereal. Two years later, W.K. Kellogg made the first corn flakes.
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Image Credit: Public Domain
2008
Prior to the development of circular, corrugated, galvanized steel grain bins, prefabricated, non-corrugated steel bins were used because of cost, portability, rodent resistance and waterproof features, but bin capacity was limited. In the 1920's, corrugated bins, which were larger in size and could support greater loads, were developed and became commercially available. In the 1930's, research programs advanced their use, notably research by F. C. Fenton at Kansas State College of Agriculture and Applied Science and T. E.
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2009
Historically, Farm Tillage Tools Were Designed Without Scientific Knowledge Of How Tools Work The Soil. Thus, A Tool Designed To Operate In One Soil Pulled By A Mule Might Not Operate Satisfactorily In Another Soil Or When Pulled By A Tractor At Higher Speeds. Traction And Flotation Problems Appeared With The Introduction Of Tractors. The Importance Of Developing A Scientific Approach To The Study Of Tillage And Traction Became Apparent During The Transition From Animal To Mechanical Power.
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Image Credit: Courtesy Wikicommons/Blonder1984 (CC BY-SA 3.0)Image Caption: Soil compaction
1990