Black and white photograph of WPA workers with grasshopper bait for distribution to farmers, 1937.

WPA workers with grasshopper bait

WPA workers with grasshopper bait for distribution to farmers, 1937.

Black and white photograph of Rachel Carson, biologist, conservationist, and writer, ca. 1930s.

Rachel Carson

Rachel Carson, biologist, conservationist, and writer, ca. 1930s.

Black and white photograph of grasshoppers waiting for the temperature to rise before moving into a corn field in Marshall, Minnesota, ca. 1930s.

Grasshoppers waiting for the temperature to rise

Grasshoppers waiting for the temperature to rise before moving into a corn field in Marshall, Minnesota, ca. 1930s.

Black and white photograph of a wall of a poorly kept flour mill with accumulations of flour webbed by a flour moth. U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1913.

Flour-moth-infested mill

Portion of a wall of a poorly kept flour mill with accumulations of flour webbed by a flour moth. U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1913.

Black and white photograph of Otto Lugger, University of Minnesota professor, author, and State Entomologist, ca. 1895.

Otto Lugger

Otto Lugger, University of Minnesota professor, author, and State Entomologist, ca. 1895.

An illustration of an adult female locust placing her eggs in soil, 1877.

Rocky Mountain Locust oviposition (egg-laying process)

An illustration of an adult female locust placing her eggs in soil, 1877.

Black and white photograph of Entomology professor Henry C. Chiang (left) inspecting corn stalks for signs of corn borers with F. G. Holdaway and Jeanne Marie Hellberg, 1951.

Inspecting corn stalks for signs of corn borers at the University of Minnesota

Entomology professor Henry C. Chiang (left) inspects corn stalks for signs of corn borers with F. G. Holdaway and Jeanne Marie Hellberg, 1951. Image courtesy of the University of Minnesota Archives, University of Minnesota—Twin Cities.

Pest Management in Minnesota Agriculture

Insect pests have harmed harvests in Minnesota country since European immigrants first arrived in the area. Most local farmers, however, did not actively manage pests. Instead, they planned for the risk of losing some of their crop. It took both huge losses from the late 1800s grasshopper plagues and the industrialization of agriculture for Minnesota’s government to invest in pest management methods.

Weyerhaeuser, Frederick (1834–1914)

Frederick Weyerhaeuser was a prominent, self-made lumber capitalist and millionaire in the Midwest during the Gilded Age. Nicknamed "the Lumber King" and "the Timber King" during a time when lumber ranked alongside iron and the railroads as a source of industry, Weyerhaeuser created a syndicate that controlled millions of acres of timberland. The syndicate also controlled sawmills, paper mills, and processing plants.

Color image of a Haupt Fountain made of Morton Gneiss in Washington D.C., ca. 2016.

Haupt Fountain

Haupt Fountain made of Morton Gneiss in Washington D.C., ca. 2016.

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