The gardened state: Agricultural conservation in New Jersey during the Great Depression,1929--1941.
详细信息
文摘
This thesis examines the efforts of New Jersey agencies to assist farmers during the Great Depression through the promotion of conservation techniques. Several agencies in New Jersey supported conservation to assist farmers struggling with declining prices and environmental damage. Agronomists from Rutgers University researched crops, fertilizers, and tillage practices； experts at the New Jersey Department of Agriculture studied existing methods of farming, and worked with Rutgers to inform farmers of new methods； the State Soil Conservation Committee introduced new ways of managing farm and public lands. Many farmers adopted better practices and began to remedy the damages of the previous decades, halting erosion on most lands and moving toward rotational grazing on pastures to preserve hillsides. Strip planting, contour plowing, reforestation, and pasture management contributed to the stabilization of farmers' lands and incomes. The promotion of conservation practices by state agencies in New Jersey during the Great Depression showed that considerations of the economy and the environment need not be mutually exclusive.