Smithsonian to Document Farm Innovation

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, in conjunction with the American Farm Bureau Federation, is asking farmers, ranchers and agribusiness for help in building a collection that reflects modern agricultural practices. Curators are asking for stories, photographs and ephemera to record and preserve the innovations and experiences of farming.

The first donation was made by Pat Campbell of Cleburne Jersey Farm in Spring Hill, Tenn. Campbell will give a selection of photographs, personal recollections and a computer cow tag and reader unit to show the change in dairying from a hand, labor-intensive process to a modern computer-run operation.

Coinciding with National Agriculture Day on March 19, the museum will open a Web portal where farmers can upload stories about technologies and innovation that have changed their lives. Topics will include precision farming, environmental concerns, irrigation, biotechnology and hybrid seeds. To participate, visit http://americanenterprise.si.edu.

The information will be used as part of the "American Enterprise" exhibit, scheduled to open in 2015 in the Mars Hall of American Business.

The exhibition will also include Eli Whitney’s cotton gin, a 1920s Fordson tractor, Barbara McClintock’s microscope and Stanley Cohen’s recombinant DNA research notebook.

What a Day!

Scratch My Belly

It sure wasn’t funny when this John Deere 7720 caught a rear wheel in a hole while hauling a heavy load on the forks in front. The operator wasn’t injured—just in the doghouse.

If you’ve had one of those days—or caught someone else’s on film—we’d love to share it with our readers. E-mail high-resolution images to sbrown@farmjournal.com, or mail prints to What a Day!, Farm Journal, P.O. Box 958, Mexico, MO 65265. Photos for publication will be selected on a first-come basis.

Stat Rack

Some weeds are more wily than others:

200+
Weed species have developed resistance to the herbicides used for their control

50 to 300 million
Weed seeds are buried in 1 acre of U.S. cropland

5% to 10%
Of weed seeds in the ground germinate each year

4,600
Acres per day are overtaken by invasive weeds on federal lands in the West

300
Miles that horseweed seeds have been known to travel—some even to the Earth’s planetary boundary layer

150%
Growth rate increase of poison ivy, when grown in a carbon dioxide–rich environment

40
Number of years that lambsquarter seeds can survive in the ground

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