Articles about Agriculture
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Honeybees sweetened 19th century life in Central Illinois
By Bill Kemp. Published on May 20, 2012.
In November 1887, a poor local honey harvest led The Pantagraph to predict scarce inventories and high prices. “Biscuit will have to be...
100 Bushel Club pushed corn yields in the 1950s
By Bill Kemp. Published on September 18, 2016.
In this age of genetically modified crops, once unimaginable corn yields topping 200-plus bushels per acre are now becoming the norm....
End of horse era spurs revolution in barn design
By Bill Kemp. Published on November 6, 2016.
Though it may seem hard to believe, horses remained an integral part of Corn Belt farms well into the 1930s. And although the tractor b...
Oxen the original ‘work horses’ of the prairie
By Bill Kemp. Published on December 11, 2016.
Before the introduction of draft horses and then steam and gasoline-powered tractors, oxen provided the muscle on pioneer Corn Belt far...
McLean County’s first corn farmers also mound builders
By Bill Kemp. Published on April 16, 2017.
It’s been nearly 200 years since the first Euro-Americans began settling would become McLean County. Those prairie pioneers of the 1820...
Barns fast disappearing from Corn Belt countryside
By Bill Kemp. Published on September 3, 2017.
One would be hard pressed to come up with a more iconic image of the Corn Belt than the old wood barn. It’s also an endangered remnant ...
Silos sentinels of Corn Belt since late 19th century
By Bill Kemp. Published on March 11, 2018.
Farm silos, an iconic symbol of the Corn Belt, have long flummoxed city and suburban folk. Frustrated parents clueless as to the purpos...
Black farm family prominent in Bellflower Township
By Bill Kemp. Published on September 12, 2018.
McLean County farmland has always had a relatively high rate of tenancy—from the earliest years of the county’s establishment to the pr...
Local tractor company never gained traction
By Bill Kemp. Published on June 23, 2019.
“More from the soil, with less toil” was the promise of the Illinois Tractor Co., which for a few short years sold its Bloomington-made...
Portable Elevator plant closed in 1987
By Bill Kemp. Published on August 25, 2019.
In the spring of 2018, Canadian agricultural equipment manufacturer Brandt Industries began assembling grain augers and belt conveyors ...
Picture postcard speaks to power of donations
By Bill Kemp. Published on January 10, 2021.
As a not-for-profit institution, the McLean County Museum of History relies to a considerable extent on the generosity of the public to...
Donated letter window into family tragedy
By Bill Kemp. Published on November 7, 2021.
Death came for John W. Puett on the afternoon of Jan. 12, 1917. The Bloomington grain dealer was at his Twin Grove elevator, located so...