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From Collection to Cultivation

1935 Map showing the ‘Distribution of the Great Soil Groups’

Can agricultural historians help develop a holistic vision of sustainable land use planning, based on the history of the intended New Deal? In a new analysis, team member Tad Brown and co-author Levi Van Sant suggest that an ambitious but thwarted New Deal soils programs might offer some hope for more effective government land planning in the present, given sufficient public resolve.

Read more in their essay, "Appreciating Poor Soils," a contribution to The Short Rows blog of the Agricultural History Society.