Agriculture | Page 34

An Agricultural Challenge to Farmers

Two individuals contemplating how to grow corn in Minnesota’s cold climate.

Minnesota Too Cold for Corn

A stalk of corn shivering in Minnesota’s cold climate.

Color image of the hand of an American Indian symbolically offering ear of corn to colonists. Used in The Grain That Built a Hemisphere.

American Indian Corn

Hand of an American Indian symbolically offering ear of corn to colonists. Used in The Grain That Built a Hemisphere, 1943.

Yam Kaax, the Mayan corn god

Corn god holding an ear of corn. Photograph by Wikimedia Commons user ŠJů, 2012.

Mayan Temple

Drawing of a temple built in honor of maize. Used in the Disney film The Grain That Built a Hemisphere, 1943.

Maize Evolved in Warm Southern Mexico

Drawing of a maize or corn plant enjoying warm weather in Southern Mexico. Drawing by Emmeline Hall.

Teosinte Plant

Drawing of how the teosinte plant may have looked thousands of years ago. Used in the Disney short film The Grain That Built a Hemisphere, 1943.

From the time of statehood into the early 1900s, Minnesota's climate discouraged the growing of corn. Many immigrants from Northern Europe disbelieved the skeptics and set out to prove them wrong by developing special varieties of seed capable of growing corn in cold conditions. They were successful, and by the late 1930s, Minnesota had become one of the leading corn-producing states.

National Farmers Organization sign near St. Cloud

National Farmers Organization sign on Highway 23, near St. Cloud. Photographed on January 24, 2016, by Therese Cain.

NFO checkpoint in Clontarf

Photograph of a a National Farmers Organization checkpoint in Clontarf printed in the Benson Swift County News on August 25, 1964. The original caption included with the photograph reads, “A photo of an NFO checkpoint at the highway 9 curve in Clontarf. Checkpoints and picketing posts are spotted along major highways in this area and wherever the NFO meat withholding action is in force. Manning the checkpoint were Wesley Benham (left) and Walter Gades.” Image is from the Benson Swift County News (vol. LXXI), August 25, 1964.

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