var iFrameID = document.getElementById('idIframe'); Heavily capitalized, with access to thousands, sometime millions, of dollars, these farmers were products of an agribusiness system. Community Supported Agriculture - LocalHarvest From 1948 to 1964, Mexican day laborers filled a vital need for field hands in the Delta. Fourche River Days in Perryville, April. In recent years, acreage has averaged 600,000 acres and yields have averaged 58 bushels per acre. The alluvial soils of the vast Arkansas and Mississippi river valleys are some of the most productive agricultural soils in the state. [15] In Russellville, the Arkansas River Valley Arts Center offers visual arts as well as art classes and infrequent performances. While not as severe as the Dust Bowl conditions of the mid-1930s, for Arkansas the droughts effects were still devastating. This ill-conceived approach to water development, he argues, has resulted in social problems as well as abuse of the environment. Soil quality and its use here in Arkansas. to 1670 A.D. You briefly mention free range of cattle in the nineteenth century in association with tenant/sharecropper farmers and say that beef cattle were often kept on free range prior to World War II, but I didnt notice any mention of free-range hogs in upland/GCP areas of Arkansas. WORKING PAPER The Arkansas Valley Super Ditch: A Local Response to Buy } By 1964, the statistical importance of tenant-sharecroppers, and the number of horses and mules, had been reduced to the point that federal officials no longer collected data on them. Immediately after the war, confusion and uncertainty made it difficult for freedmen to take advantage of the legislation. Agriculture in Arkansas. An exploration period for a new regional crop tested beans, legumes, and tomatoes before settling on mustard greens and spinach. Our dedication to our customers have made us one of the most trusted names in the industry. Get beekeeping, honey production, and class information. The need for workers in wartime industries drained rural Arkansas of farm workers in the 1940s. The remaining property was open range for livestock, was used for hunting or fishing, and was a source for firewood, wood for tool handles, roofing shingles, and other needs. Over the past two million years, rivers carried soil particles from the upper Midwest and cut through thick loess deposits in the lower Mississippi River Valley. Concurrent with the growth in human population in Colorado, there has been increasing pressure on land and water resources that were historically devoted to agriculture. Finally, an economic model of crop production for existing acreage allocations in the Arkansas River Valley is in development. Soils in this Breeds such as Jersey and Guernsey were more valued for the high butterfat in their milk, but as with beef animals, little attention was given to scientific breeding. The other crops produced in Arkansas in large quantities are soybeans, corn, cotton, grain sorghum, and wheat. The building boom that began at the end of World War II and continued with the baby boom into the 1960s accelerated the need for lumber and its by-products. The most obvious change came after 1863, when the Emancipation Proclamation freed Arkansass 111,115 slaves. var d = new Date(); [14] Today, the Altus Area Coal Miner's Memorial is a series of five sculptures paying homage to area coal miners, with the names of over 2,500 local miners engraved at the site. Other Delta counties showed similar increases. Arkansas/Oklahoma State Fair (at Fort Smith), SeptemberOctober, This page was last edited on 28 March 2023, at 10:13. By the 1970s, Arkansas consistently led the nation in rice production. inner.style.display = "none"; More than ninety percent of the region was covered with trees, eighty percent of which were bottomland hardwoods. The dead river channels were some of the first lands sought out by the white American cotton farmers arriving from the East in the 1820s. } d = document.querySelectorAll('[id^=ptac-faq-question]'); Living in small villages characterized by earthen burial mounds, these native peoples planted vegetables and grains by tilling with hand-held wooden tools. Seed Starting Guide - Arkansas River Valley - Kerr Center Fort Smith is the second-largest city in Arkansas, and serves as a regional hub for culture, health care and transportation. The ARVAC Food Bank, located at 504 Union Street in Dardanelle, provides food for local churches, community food pantries, and soup kitchens. The Jack Creek Recreation Area and Knopper's Ford Recreation Area offer well-known Arkansas swimming holes as well as hiking, camping and fishing. Without regular incomes, they became dependent on public housing and food subsidies and spent an extended amount of time unemployed, even as landowners hired migrant workers from Mexico as day laborers. Guiding communities and regions toward vibrant and sustainable futures. } Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2000. Wintering waterfowl and other migrating species use the area as a safe haven during their journey. A New Plantation South: Land, Labor, and Federal Favor in Twentieth-Century Arkansas. The project showcases Arkansas's diverse agriculture and crops, regional economies; the distinctive geography and geology of each region, and a broad look at the areas that make Arkansas the rich and varied land and culture it has been throughout its history. if(inner.style.display === "block") Featured trees, vines, shrubs and flowers. b++; ANNUAL ROUNDUP This year's River Valley Beef Cattle Conference will focus on efficiency, presenting the latest recommendations for cattle producers looking to keep costs down and profits up. var googleAccountID = "UA-39815896-1"; Increase your knowledge of public issues & get involved. While the bank is not open to the public, ARVAC provides food to individuals and families based on the federally funded criteria of the CSFP and TEFAP Programs. Taylor, Orville. Criticized by sportsmen and environmentalists for misusing the land, polluting streams, and altering habitat for wildlife, Arkansas farmers have increasingly lost debates on public policy issues involving their industry. The spinach and greens products allowed Alma to leverage its existing fruit canning facility owned by the Alma Canning and Evaporating Company, which had been in the area since 1888. Top commodities include broilers (chicken for meat), soybeans, rice, cotton, cattle and calves, and turkeys. The Second Great Emancipation: The Mechanical Cotton Picker, Black Migration, and How They Shaped the Modern South. Originally brought to southeast Arkansas to work on cotton plantations, a band of these aliens migrated to Washington County and established a self-sufficient community, in part by growing grapes. } But after World War II, most Arkansas farmers were also a new elite. Whayne, Jeannie M.Creation of a Plantation System in the Arkansas Delta in the Twentieth Century. Agricultural History 66 (Winter 1992): 6384. In 1954, Congress passed the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act, designed to improve land already cleared for either crops or pasture by channeling and damming streams that were prone to flood. Mississippi Alluvial Plain (MAP): Water Use and Availability Program - USGS Mining became prominent by 1873, especially around the Altus area. Specialty crops including turfgrass, vegetables, fruits, and ornamentals. a town just downstream from the mouth of the Arkansas River, and 29% greater at Red River Landing, a site . Vegetable Crop Management in the Arkansas Valley - USDA This started well before the Civil War and continued through the mid-twentieth century, and was widespreadvirtually every hill farmer of this period ear-notched hogs and turned them loose in the woods, gathered them up in the fall/early winter, and then butchered them. Arkansas Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Division and is implemented by the Arkansas Department of Agriculture, Forestry Division. } Soybeans, the more versatile of the two, gained in popularity over rice. Learn to ID unwanted plant and animal visitors. Check it out. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1998. document.getElementById("copyright-date").innerHTML = d.getFullYear(); Private, Commercial & Non-commercial training and education. Graves, John William. { Here are the basics: a farmer offers a certain number of "shares" to the public. inner.style.visibility = 'visible'; The presence of Native Americans is still evident today in the occasional mound not yet destroyed by modern agricultural practices and the abundant potsherds, lithic tools and points, and bone fragments found in plowed fields and . The Chateau Aux Arc Vineyards and Winery is the largest US Chardonnay producer outside of California, and the largest Zinfandel producer in Arkansas. What else do you need to know? By the twenty-first century, about sixty percent of Arkansas farmers raised cattle. Grove, Jama McMurtery. Cotton and corn farmers survived by planting in the Ouachita-Saline River watershed valleys. The other vegetation was a rhizome grass the local population called cane. "&ea=" + encodeURIComponent(document.title) + Because it required less effort to cultivate, it became the first region to be dominated by the cotton monoculture. In Arkansas, the main office did not open in Little Rock until October 1868. Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Central Arkansas Library System. Game and fish enthusiasts and environmentalists worried that clearing for crops would despoil the region. The River Valley's first wineries date to the postbellum era, when they were founded to produce wine for the Swiss and German immigrants relocating to the area to work in coal mines. Arkansas - Economy | Britannica The state operates four parks within the region: Lake Dardanelle State Park, Mount Magazine State Park, Mount Nebo State Park, and Petit Jean State Park. Soils - Encyclopedia of Arkansas The Arkansas River Valley is informally defined along county boundaries, including all of Logan and Sebastian counties and portions of Conway, Franklin, Johnson, Perry, Pope, and Yell counties. Some Delta land, already cleared and drained, brought $2,500 per acre. for (var i in d) { Most first encounters describe scattered villages and individual farmsteads in the River Valley, unlike the organized "towns" and groves and orchards encountered in eastern Arkansas. The bill did not become law until the third week of June (too late to plant cotton), and the General Land Office was slow to reestablish offices in the seceded states. Licensing for forestry and wildlife professionals. slopes, and by the weathering of the existent parent material. var str = x.id; ARVAC Food Bank | Income-Based Food Programs | Dardanelle, AR PDF Arkansas River Valley - agriculture.arkansas.gov Equipping individuals to lead organizations, communities, and regions. Cotton acreage continued to increase until 1955, but the growth was much smaller compared with that of rice and soybeans, and farmers focused on those crops. Vineyards and wineries around Altus have been in the same family for generations. Summary of 1811-1812 New Madrid Earthquakes Sequence Completed - USGS [12] River Valley soil and climate are much less conducive to cotton cultivation than the Arkansas Delta, and many settlers struggled. Some row crop agriculture is also present in the Arkansas River Valley. var inner = document.getElementById(test); With their product valued more for juice than wine, grape growers in the northwest became a success by producing for commercial canneries. return s4() + s4() + '-' + s4() + '-' + s4() + '-' + s4() + '-' + s4() + s4() + s4(); Special thanks to the Department of Arkansas Heritage. The Forestry Division in partnership with the USDA Forest Service is an equal opportunity provider and employer. After 1970, federal officials modified the program and took steps to limit the acreage being developed for agriculture. The western portion of the River Valley (i.e., around Fort Smith) is situated near an area known as Tornado Alley in the central United States. [11] Several of the River Valley's small towns were founded by these groups, beginning as small clusters of immigrants and evolving into cohesive communities. //alert(str); // here you can make the height, I delete it first, then I make it again } Despite these issues, demographic changes have presented some opportunities for growers in the . By World War II, most of the acceptable cotton land was in cultivation. Extreme heat and humidity of the summer months and parasites such as ticks, mosquitoes, and screw worms presented serious challenges to cattle. Additional support provided by the Arkansas Community Foundation. Arkansas partners train 250 firefighters at the 2021 River Valley [CDATA[ One of his first actions was to introduce Santa Gertrudis cattle in the state, a breed specifically developed in south Texas to thrive in the regions hot weather and multiple pests. Near Booneville, Blue Mountain Lake offers a variety of recreational opportunities. var x = document.getElementById(b); inner.style.opacity = '1'; https://www.butlercenter.org/agriculture-in-arkansas/ (accessed September 11, 2020). Arkansas was second only to Florida in acres still in the public domain and offered an opportunity for thousands of Arkansans, black and white, to own farms free of charge. According to industry records, the average herd size by 2020 was thirty-five head, and eighty percent of the approximately 24,000 cattle farms in the state had fewer than fifty head of livestock. Many events are held at the state parks and on town squares throughout the River Valley. For many of the farmers new to the Delta, a key was in growing rice instead of, or in addition to, cotton. The new equipment came primarily in the form of tractors and improved planting and harvesting machines. Soil is one the most precious natural resources in Arkansas as it is the foundation ________. } Unjustified Expectations of Magic: Arkansas Agricultural Specialists, DDT, and 2,4-D. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 79 (Summer 2020): 89115. Encyclopedia of Arkansas // ]]> Real Estate in Arkansas River Valley - Colorado Real Estate Agency Most ranchers did not engage in scientific breeding to improve herd quality, and a high percentage of their animals lived on open range. The states climate did not favor the beef industry. These former sharecroppers and tenant farmers were not the source of the new agriculture but rather were reflective of its change. function accordionClick(b) { Not only was their occupation gone, but also was the land that served as a source for food, fuel, and leisure. The Arkansas River Valley bisects the Ozarks and the Ouachitas and offered the best farmland in the upland region. Rainfall had typically been an ally for farmers, but from April 1930 to January 1931, measurable precipitation was far below average. b++; The second came in 1866 with the Southern Homestead Act, which provided free land from the public domain in the former Confederate states. By June, water covered more than 6,000 square miles and all but destroyed the row crops. Elkins, Francis Clark. For more than 150 years, agricultural practices had hardly changed. Held annually in July, the festival offers peach pit spitting contest and a terrapin derby in addition to a parade and traditional food and craft vendors. The majority is grown in: Mississippi River Delta region of Eastern Arkansas css.styleSheet.cssText = rule; Donations made to the CALS Foundation are tax-deductible for United States federal income tax purposes. [3] Much of what is known about these early societies has been uncovered by the Arkansas Archaeological Survey and the Arkansas Archaeological Society at Carden Bottoms in Yell County near the Arkansas and Petit Jean Rivers. Apples were the crop of choice for landowners in the northwest hill counties, particularly after the Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad extended east from Eureka Springs (Carroll County) in the 1890s and allowed growers to ship to outside markets. Rate and review titles you borrow and share your opinions on them. b++; Farmers provided land and labor while processors offered chickens, feed, and a contract to buy the products. Welcome to Price AG, your leading tractor dealership in the Arkansas River Valley. //alert(iFrameID.height); Other cities in the River Valley are mostly of county-level significance, gateways to nearby recreational sites or small rural settlements. Not knowing that the soil was untillable, the former hill farmers taught their neighbors a lesson about determination and will. Before the war, cottons low tolerance for heavy, wet soil presented farmers a challenge in maneuvering their fields amid the forest and finding elevation high enough to avoid overflow. var count = 1; Town and Country: Race Relations in an Urban-Rural Context, Arkansas, 18651905. Arkansas River Valley - Wikipedia Conflict with non-farm groups reached a climax in the 1996 Federal Farm Bill, which defined environmentally sensitive land and restricted farming practices in what was termed wetlands. In addition to policy regulations, farmers also faced constraints from resource depletion. One of these, the Grand Prairie, a vast treeless region between the Arkansas and White rivers, occupies more than 500,000 acres of natural grassland in the south-central section. else Agriculture has played a major role in Arkansass culture from territorial times, when farmers made up more than ninety percent of the population, through the present (about forty-five percent of the states residents were still classified as rural in the early part of the twenty-first century). var a = 0; { April 24, 2023. The River Valley has generally mild winters and hot, humid summers. A new age in Arkansas agriculture had begun and was reflected in changing land and cropping practices. var inner = document.getElementById(test); Mountains, West Gulf Coastal Plain, and Mississippi River Alluvial Plain, Avian Influenza Biosecurity Best Practices, APEX Accelerator & Government Contracting, Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food & Life Sciences. // ]]> The Klan had limited support, and much of the area was viewed steadily Re Tomatoesalso became a commercial success in the twentieth century, particularly in the southeastern regions of the state. Because of funding shortfalls, the Arkansas Valley Conduit was never built after it was authorized in 1962. In 1940, tenants or sharecroppers cultivated more than sixty percent of the land, and more than ninety percent of farmers used horses or mules as draft animals. The Greenwood Performing Arts Center has over 1,000 seats and is used for various performances in the city. In 1867, only 167 freedmen made claims in Arkansas. for (var i in d) { d[i].id = "ptac-faq-question" + b; Rice, which had been grown commercially since the turn of the century, saw a rapid increase in acreage after the 1930s. Global Village Day at Heifer International, October. test = "answer" + test; The lower Mississippi River Valley was a fertile homeland to Native Americans from about 9500 B.C. Also, when federal officials established production controls on cotton in the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, some landowners turned to rice. The area is approximately 29,000 square miles (19 million acres) and includes parts of the States of Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. function s4() { Temperatures are generally warmer than in the Ozarks and cooler than Central Arkansas, although the wide variance in elevation in the River Valley can create locally different climatic conditions. One of the largest farming regions, the Mississippi Alluvial Plain (formed by the Arkansas, Mississippi, and Ohio rivers), stretches about 250 miles from Missouri to Louisiana. Public policy also influenced the shift from cotton to soybeans. Prior to that time, few landowners raised cattle exclusively, although most homesteads had a few head of livestock, including milch cows. // Multidisciplinary Research on Salinity Issues in The Arkansas River Valley } else { The Wiederkehr Weinfest in Wiederkehr Village, a winery founded by Johann Andreas Wiederkehr, is a free harvest festival held annually in October, including wine tasting, vineyard tours, music, polka dancing, traditional German cuisine and other festival entertainment. [10] These settlements received support from existing immigrant populations in Little Rock and Fort Smith, and groups of Protestant settlers also establishing settlements in the area. } a++; var x = document.getElementById(b); The significance of the changes lay in the speed in which they occurred. Crop production in the Ozarks Plateaus and Ouachita Mountains is limited, mainly revolving The landlord-tenant sharecropping system quickly ran into economic problems. Tractors, although making an appearance in the Delta soon after World War I, were at first impractical due to poor design, high cost, and the dominance of small-scale sharecropping and tenant farming in the state. Upon arriving in the region, many found only densely forested upland to be the only property they could afford. In Clarksville, the Walton Fine Arts Center on the campus of the University of the Ozarks offers university theater, performers, and speakers to patrons. //alert(str); Dairying also experienced dramatic changes in the postWorld War II period. West and north of the Mississippi River floodplain lay the Ouachita Mountains and the Ozark uplift. Wartime technologies produced giant, self-propelled, rubber-tired scrapers that could transport fourteen cubic yards of dirt, and they were highly mobile. Mechanical milking machines, new techniques in pasteurization, homogenization, and refrigerationcoupled with improved transportationbrought modernity to the industry. } At six cents a pound, standard wages for first picking in 1930, a hard worker could make six to eighteen dollars a day. In total, Otto Nuttli reported more than 200 moderate to large aftershocks in the New Madrid region between December 16, 1811, and March 15, 1812: ten of these were greater than about 6.0; about one hundred were between M5.0 and 5.9; and eighty-nine were in the magnitude 4 range. The Swiss and German immigrants found the rolling hills similar to the topography of their homeland. DeMaris, Ralph, and Robert Irving. Populism in Arkansas. MA thesis, George Peabody College for Teachers (now Vanderbilt Universitys Peabody College), 1931. Geography played a key role in shaping Arkansas agriculture. The German community thrived with coal mining and railroad work driving the local economy. The . Laws favorable to small-business development encouraged partnerships between poultry growers and processors and a redevelopment of land use. The Colorado River provides water for over 40 million Americans and 30 Tribal Nations, fuels hydropower resources in eight states and supports agriculture across the region. When many of the small farmers did not return to the land after the war ended, as they had following World War I, landowners were forced to rely on machinery even more. { Black farmers were slow to sign up for the new lands and even slower to finalize their claims, for several reasons. var test = "" + str; Arkansas, 18001860: Remote and Restless. Visitors can buy wines, tour the winery and watch the production process. But lofty though its goals, and as well intentioned as its sponsors may have been to help the Southern underclass, it was not a panacea. However, the Arkansas River Valley, as referred to by physiographers, "is not the alluvial valley through which the Arkansas River actually meanders. In the southern part of Arkansas we find Coastal Plain soils, which are marine deposits Almost twenty-seven percent of Arkansass acreage lay unclaimed, and more than eighty percent of that was in the Delta. . } considered here. count = d.length; 100 Rock Street It rises more than 200 feet above the floodplain and varies up to ten miles in width as it stretches 150 miles from the Mississippi River at Helena (Phillips County) to the Missouri border near Corning (Clay County). Arkansas River Valley White River running through the Ozark Mountains of Northern Arkansas. // Despite significant efforts by scientists in the University of Arkansass College of Agriculture to control disease and pests and to develop new varieties, apple producers have not been able to regain a significant share of the market from the Pacific Northwest. Between 1935when farms reached an all-time high of more than 235,000 unitsand 1995, the number dropped steadily before leveling off to just under 50,000 farms. var test = "" + str; Increasing nitrate concentrations are related to increasing agricultural . a++; For most, having spent their lives close to the soil working crops and livestock with a limited selection of tools, continuing in agriculture was expected. Farmers, faced with limits on cotton, turned to soybean production with a passion; market prices were high through most the 1960s and 1970s.
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