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17th and 18th centuries
All forms of domestic livestock, except turkeys, are imported at some
time; crops borrowed from Indians include maize, sweet potatoes, tomatoes,
pumpkins, gourds, squashes, watermelons, beans, grapes, berries, pecans,
black walnuts, peanuts, maple sugar, tobacco, and cotton
17th
and 18th centuries
New crops from Europe include clover, alfalfa, timothy, small grains,
and fruits and vegetables; African slaves introduce grain and sweet
sorghum, melons, okra, and peanuts
18th century
Tobacco is the chief cash crop of the South
1793
First Merino sheep imported
1795-1815
Sheep industry greatly emphasized in New England
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1805-15
Cotton begins to replace tobacco as the chief southern cash crop
1810-15
Demand for Merino sheep sweeps the country
1815-25
Competition with western farm areas begins to force New England farmers
out of wheat and meat production and into dairying, trucking, and
later, tobacco production
1815-30
Cotton becomes the most important cash crop in the Old South
1819
Secretary of Treasury instructs consuls to collect seeds, plants,
and agricultural inventions
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1820s
Poland-China and Duroc-Jersey swine are developed, and Berkshire swine
are imported
1821
Edmund Ruffin's first Essay on Calcareous Manures
1836-62
Patent Office collects agricultural information and distributes seeds
1830s-1850s
Improved transportation to the West forces eastern staple growers
into more varied production for nearby urban centers
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1840
Justus von Liebig's Organic Chemistry
1840-50
New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio are the chief wheat States
1840-60
Hereford, Ayrshire, Galloway, Jersey, and Holstein cattle are imported
and bred
1849
First poultry exhibition in the United States
1850s
Commercial corn and wheat belts begin to develop; wheat occupies the
newer and cheaper land west of the corn areas, and is constantly forced
westward by rising land values and the encroachment of corn; alfalfa
grown on the west coast
1858
Grimm alfalfa introduced
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1860s
Cotton Belt begins to move westward; Corn Belt begins stabilizing
in its present area
1860
Wisconsin and Illinois chief wheat States
1866-89
Era of the Great Plains cattlemen
1870s
Increased specialization in farm production; Illinois, Iowa, and Ohio
chief wheat States; foot-and-mouth disease first reported in the United
States
1874-76
Grasshopper plagues in the West
1877 U.S. Entomological Commission established for work on grasshopper
control
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1880s
Cattle industry moves into the western and southwestern Great Plains
1882
Bordeau mixture (fungicide) discovered in France and soon used in
U.S.; Robert Koch discovers tubercle bacillus
Mid-1880s
Texas the chief cotton State
1886-87
Blizzards, following drought and overgrazing, disastrous to northern
Great Plains cattle industry
1889
Bureau of Animal Industry discovers carrier of tick fever
1890
Minnesota, California, and Illinois chief wheat States; Babcock butterfat
test devised
1892
Boll weevil crosses the Rio Grande and begins to spread north and
east; eradication of pleuropneumonia
1899
Improved method of anthrax inoculation
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1900-10
Turkey red wheat emerges as commercial crop
1900-20
Extensive experimental work to breed disease-resistant varieties of
plants, to improve plant yield and quality, and to increase the productivity
of farm animal strains
1903
Hog cholera serum developed
1904
First serious stem-rust epidemic affecting wheat
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1910
North Dakota, Kansas, and Minnesota chief wheat States; durum wheats
become important commercial crops; 35 States and territories require
tuberculin testing of all cattle entering
1910-20
Grain production reaches into the most arid sections of the Great
Plains
1912
Marquis wheat introduced; Panama and Colombia sheep developed
1917
Kansas red wheat distributed
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1926
Ceres wheat distributed; first hybrid-seed corn company organized;
Targhee sheep developed
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1930-35
Use of hybrid-seed corn becomes common in the Corn Belt
1934
Thatcher wheat distributed; Landrace hogs imported from Denmark
1938
Cooperative organized for artificial insemination of dairy cattle
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1940s and 1950s
Acreages of crops, such as oats, required for horse and mule feed
drop sharply as farms use more tractors
1945-55
Increased use of herbicides and pesticides
1947
U.S. cooperates with Mexico to prevent spread of foot-and-mouth disease
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 1955s
Sterile flies used for screwworm control
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1960s
Soybean acreage expands as an alternative to other crops
1960
96% of corn acreage planted with hybrid seed
1961
Gaines wheat distributed
1966
Fortuna wheat distributed
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1970
Plant Variety Protection Act; Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Norman
Borlaug for developing high-yielding wheat varieties
1972
Molecular biologist Paul Berg pioneers the techniques that make possible the transfer of genes from one strand of DNA to another
1975
Lancota wheat introduced
1978
Hog cholera officially eradicated
1979
Purcell winter wheat introduced
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1980
The first American patent for a genetically engineered organism, a bacterium used to clean up oil spills, is granted
1980s
Biotechnology becomes viable for improving crop and livestock products
1983-84
Avian influenza of poultry eradicated before it spreads beyond a few
Pennsylvania counties
1986
Antismoking campaigns and legislation begin to affect the tobacco
industry
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1990s
Biotechnology brings important new developments in dairy, corn, and
other commodities; genetically engineered crops and livestock appear
1990s
Livestock waste becomes a major issue
Mid-1990s
USDA meat inspection programs modernized in response to concerns about
food safety
1997
'New Leaf Superior,' a potato developed by Monsanto that carries a beetle-killing BT gene, is registered as an insecticide with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
1997-98
Tobacco industry settles lawsuits; aid proposed to tobacco farmers
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