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95-477: The Arion Society was a German-American musical society. It was founded in January 1854 to promote "the perpetuation of love for some of the characteristic elements of German civilization". It was disbanded because of Anti-German sentiment following World War I . It was founded in January 1854 to promote "the perpetuation of love for some of the characteristic elements of German civilization". They sponsored

190-694: A Quaker -led coalition that took control of the legislature, which later supported the American Revolution . Despite this, many of the German settlers were loyalists during the Revolution, possibly because they feared their royal land grants would be taken away by a new republican government, or because of loyalty to a British German monarchy who had provided the opportunity to live in a liberal society. The Germans, comprising Lutherans , Reformed , Mennonites , Amish , and other sects, developed

285-455: A phytohormone involved in regulating stem growth via its effect on cell division. Photosynthate investment in the stem is reduced dramatically in shorter plants and nutrients become redirected to grain production, amplifying in particular the yield effect of chemical fertilizers. High-yielding varieties outperformed traditional varieties several fold and responded better to the addition of irrigation, pesticides, and fertilizers. Hybrid vigour

380-407: A terrace is a leveled section of a hilly cultivated area, designed as a method of soil conservation to slow or prevent the rapid surface runoff of irrigation water. Often such land is formed into multiple terraces, giving a stepped appearance. The human landscapes of rice cultivation in terraces that follow the natural contours of the escarpments, like contour ploughing , are a classic feature of

475-571: A Germanic language, and only in the last couple centuries the people of the Netherlands. Other Germanic language variants for "deutsch/deitsch/dutch" are: Dutch "Duits" and " Diets ", Yiddish "daytsh", Danish/Norwegian "tysk", or Swedish " tyska ." The Japanese "ドイツ" (/doitsu/) also derives from the aforementioned "Dutch" variations. The Studebaker brothers, forefathers of the wagon and automobile makers, arrived in Pennsylvania in 1736 from

570-560: A colony in Virginia called Germanna , located near modern-day Culpeper, Virginia . Virginia Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood , taking advantage of the headright system , had bought land in present-day Spotsylvania and encouraged German immigration by advertising in Germany for miners to move to Virginia and establish a mining industry in the colony. The name "Germanna", selected by Governor Alexander Spotswood , reflected both

665-454: A favored destination. By 1900, the populations of the cities of Cleveland , Milwaukee , and Cincinnati were all more than 40% German American. Dubuque and Davenport, Iowa had even larger proportions, as did Omaha , Nebraska, where the proportion of German Americans was 57% in 1910. In many other cities of the Midwest , such as Fort Wayne, Indiana , German Americans were at least 30% of

760-558: A microcosm of the Germania nationwide. The Germans who settled Texas were diverse in many ways. They included peasant farmers and intellectuals; Protestants, Catholics, Jews, and atheists; Prussians, Saxons, and Hessians; abolitionists and slave owners; farmers and townsfolk; frugal, honest folk and ax murderers. They differed in dialect, customs, and physical features. A majority had been farmers in Germany, and most arrived seeking economic opportunities. A few dissident intellectuals fleeing

855-606: A much more equal and controlled distribution pattern. Drip irrigation is the most expensive and least-used type, but delivers water to plant roots with minimal losses. Water catchment management measures include recharge pits, which capture rainwater and runoff and use it to recharge groundwater supplies. This helps in the replenishment of groundwater wells and eventually reduces soil erosion. Dammed rivers creating reservoirs store water for irrigation and other uses over large areas. Smaller areas sometimes use irrigation ponds or groundwater. In agriculture, systematic weed management

950-476: A paddock, while allowing the others to recover. Resting grazed lands allows the vegetation to renew energy reserves, rebuild shoot systems, and deepen root systems, resulting in long-term maximum biomass production. Pasture systems alone can allow grazers to meet their energy requirements, but rotational grazing is especially effective because grazers thrive on the more tender younger plant stems. Parasites are also left behind to die off, minimizing or eliminating

1045-521: A regional or national scale, and the functioning of agro-ecosystems has been profoundly altered. Agricultural intensification includes a variety of factors, including the loss of landscape elements, increased farm and field sizes, and increase usage of insecticides and herbicides. The large scale of insecticides and herbicides lead to the rapid developing resistance among pests renders herbicides and insecticides increasingly ineffective. Agrochemicals have may be involved in colony collapse disorder , in which

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1140-488: A relatively small area of land, for example by rotational grazing , or sometimes as concentrated animal feeding operations . These methods increase the yields of food and fiber per unit land area compared to those of extensive animal husbandry ; concentrated feed is brought to seldom-moved animals, or, with rotational grazing, the animals are repeatedly moved to fresh forage. Agricultural development in Britain between

1235-612: A rich religious life with a strong musical culture. Collectively, they came to be known as the Pennsylvania Dutch (from Deutsch ). Etymologically, the word Dutch originates from the Old High German word "diutisc" (from "diot" "people"), referring to the Germanic "language of the people" as opposed to Latin, the language of the learned (see also theodiscus ). Eventually the word came to refer to people who speak

1330-625: A slave). The most famous of the early German Palatine immigrants was editor John Peter Zenger , who led the fight in colonial New York City for freedom of the press in America. A later immigrant, John Jacob Astor , who came from Walldorf , Electoral Palatinate , since 1803 Baden , after the Revolutionary War, became the richest man in America from his fur trading empire and real estate investments in New York. John Law organized

1425-462: A small space poses ethical issues to some consumers. Animal rights and animal welfare activists have charged that intensive animal rearing is cruel to animals. The Green Revolution transformed farming in many developing countries. It spread technologies that had already existed, but had not been widely used outside of industrialized nations. These technologies included "miracle seeds", pesticides, irrigation, and synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. In

1520-532: Is a progressive, sustainable agriculture system such as zero waste agriculture or integrated multi-trophic aquaculture , which involves the interactions of multiple species. Elements of this integration can include: Industrial agriculture uses huge amounts of water , energy , and industrial chemicals , increasing pollution in the arable land , usable water , and atmosphere . Herbicides , insecticides , and fertilizers accumulate in ground and surface waters . Industrial agricultural practices are one of

1615-593: Is characterized by technologies designed to increase yield. Techniques include planting multiple crops per year, reducing the frequency of fallow years, improving cultivars , mechanised agriculture , controlled by increased and more detailed analysis of growing conditions, including weather, soil , water, weeds, and pests. Modern methods frequently involve increased use of non-biotic inputs, such as fertilizers , plant growth regulators, pesticides , and antibiotics for livestock. Intensive farms are widespread in developed nations and increasingly prevalent worldwide. Most of

1710-432: Is continuously cropped. Crop rotation also seeks to balance the nutrient demands of various crops to avoid soil nutrient depletion. A traditional component of crop rotation is the replenishment of nitrogen through the use of legumes and green manure in sequence with cereals and other crops. Crop rotation can also improve soil structure and fertility by alternating deep-rooted and shallow-rooted plants. A related technique

1805-1146: Is home to one of the group's original settlements, the Germantown section of present-day Philadelphia , founded in 1683. Germantown is also the birthplace of the American antislavery movement , which emerged there in 1688. Germantown also was the location of the Battle of Germantown , an American Revolutionary War battle fought between the British Army , led by William Howe , and the Continental Army , led by George Washington , on October 4, 1777. German Americans were drawn to colonial-era British America by its abundant land and religious freedom, and were pushed out of Germany by shortages of land and religious or political oppression . Many arrived seeking religious or political freedom , others for economic opportunities greater than those in Europe, and others for

1900-657: Is hostile to many species of weeds . As the only draft animal species which is comfortable in wetlands , the water buffalo is in widespread use in Asian rice paddies. A recent development in the intensive production of rice is the System of Rice Intensification . Developed in 1983 by the French Jesuit Father Henri de Laulanié in Madagascar , by 2013 the number of smallholder farmers using

1995-441: Is often increased, yields of any single crop often decrease. There are also challenges to farmers who rely on farming equipment optimized for monoculture , often resulting in increased labor inputs. Vertical farming is intensive crop production on a large scale in urban centers, in multi-story, artificially-lit structures, for the production of low-calorie foods like herbs, microgreens , and lettuce. An integrated farming system

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2090-556: Is the concentration of livestock in a given space. The aim is to provide maximum output at the lowest possible cost and with the greatest level of food safety. The term is often used pejoratively. CAFOs have dramatically increased the production of food from animal husbandry worldwide, both in terms of total food produced and efficiency. Food and water is delivered to the animals, and therapeutic use of antimicrobial agents, vitamin supplements, and growth hormones are often employed. Growth hormones are not used on chickens nor on any animal in

2185-770: Is the improvement of pasture soils and grasses to increase the food production potential of livestock systems. It is commonly used to reverse pasture degradation , a process characterized by loss of forage and decreased animal carrying capacity which results from overgrazing , poor nutrient management , and lack of soil conservation . This degradation leads to poor pasture soils with decreased fertility and water availability and increased rates of erosion, compaction, and acidification . Degraded pastures have significantly lower productivity and higher carbon footprints compared to intensified pastures. Management practices which improve soil health and consequently grass productivity include irrigation , soil scarification, and

2280-411: Is the modern method to minimize pesticide use to more sustainable levels. There are concerns over the sustainability of industrial agriculture, and the environmental effects of fertilizers and pesticides, which has given rise to the organic movement and has built a market for sustainable intensive farming, as well as funding for the development of appropriate technology . Pasture intensification

2375-493: Is to plant multi-species cover crops between commercial crops. This combines the advantages of intensive farming with continuous cover and polyculture . Crop irrigation accounts for 70% of the world's fresh water use. Flood irrigation , the oldest and most common type, is typically unevenly distributed, as parts of a field may receive excess water in order to deliver sufficient quantities to other parts. Overhead irrigation , using center-pivot or lateral-moving sprinklers, gives

2470-426: Is usually required, often performed by machines such as cultivators or liquid herbicide sprayers. Herbicides kill specific targets while leaving the crop relatively unharmed. Some of these act by interfering with the growth of the weed and are often based on plant hormones . Weed control through herbicide is made more difficult when the weeds become resistant to the herbicide. Solutions include: In agriculture ,

2565-530: Is utilized in many important crops to greatly increase yields for farmers. However, the advantage is lost for the progeny of the F1 hybrids , meaning seeds for annual crops need to be purchased every season, thus increasing costs and profits for farmers. Crop rotation or crop sequencing is the practice of growing a series of dissimilar types of crops in the same space in sequential seasons for benefits such as avoiding pathogen and pest buildup that occurs when one species

2660-801: The Alsatian region who had recently fallen under French rule, and the Swiss to immigrate. Alsace was sold to France within the greater context of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). The Jesuit Charlevoix traveled New France (Canada and Louisiana) in the early 1700s. His letter said "these 9,000 Germans, who were raised in the Palatinate (Alsace part of France) were in Arkansas. The Germans left Arkansas en masse. They went to New Orleans and demanded passage to Europe. The Mississippi Company gave

2755-633: The Blue Ridge Mountains , where Palatine German predominated. Meanwhile, in Southwest Virginia , Virginia German acquired a Swabian German accent. In North Carolina , an expedition of German Moravians living around Bethlehem, Pennsylvania , and a party from Europe led by August Gottlieb Spangenberg , headed down the Great Wagon Road and purchased 98,985 acres (400.58 km ) from Lord Granville (one of

2850-492: The European Union . Undesirable behaviors often related to the stress of confinement led to a search for docile breeds (e.g., with natural dominant behaviors bred out), physical restraints to stop interaction, such as individual cages for chickens, or physical modification such as the debeaking of chickens to reduce the harm of fighting. The CAFO designation resulted from the 1972 U.S. Federal Clean Water Act , which

2945-664: The Frankfurter Wachensturm beginning in the 1830s—predominantly in Texas and Missouri, but also in other U.S. states—in which German intellectuals ( freethinkers , German: Freidenker , and Latinists ) met together to devote themselves to the German literature , philosophy , science, classical music, and the Latin language . A prominent representative of this generation of immigrants was Gustav Koerner who lived most of

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3040-701: The United States Census Bureau 's figures from 2022, German Americans make up roughly 41 million people in the US, which is approximately 12% of the population. This represents a decrease from the 2012 census where 50.7 million Americans identified as German. The census is conducted in a way that allows this total number to be broken down in two categories. In the 2020 census, roughly two thirds of those who identify as German also identified as having another ancestry, while one third identified as German alone. German Americans account for about one third of

3135-722: The War of 1812 . In 1709, Protestant Germans from the Pfalz or Palatine region of Germany escaped conditions of poverty, traveling first to Rotterdam and then to London. Queen Anne helped them get to the American colonies. The trip was long and difficult to survive because of the poor quality of food and water aboard ships and the infectious disease typhus . Many immigrants, particularly children, died before reaching America in June 1710. The Palatine immigration of about 2100 people who survived

3230-985: The carbon balance is the use of integrated crop-livestock (ICL) and crop-livestock-forestry (ICLF) systems, which combine several ecosystems into one optimized agricultural framework. Correctly performed, such production systems are able to create synergies potentially providing benefits to pastures through optimal plant usage, improved feed and fattening rates, increased soil fertility and quality, intensified nutrient cycling , integrated pest control , and improved biodiversity . The introduction of certain legume crops to pastures can increase carbon accumulation and nitrogen fixation in soils, while their digestibility helps animal fattening and reduces methane emissions from enteric fermentation . ICLF systems yield beef cattle productivity up to ten times that of degraded pastures; additional crop production from maize , sorghum , and soybean harvests; and greatly reduced greenhouse gas balances due to forest carbon sequestration. In

3325-585: The waste disposal issue and requires that animal waste be stored in lagoons . These lagoons can be as large as 7.5 acres (30,000 m ). Lagoons not protected with an impermeable liner can leak into groundwater under some conditions, as can runoff from manure used as fertilizer. A lagoon that burst in 1995 released 25 million gallons of nitrous sludge in North Carolina's New River . The spill allegedly killed eight to ten million fish. The large concentration of animals, animal waste, and dead animals in

3420-522: The 16th century and the mid-19th century saw a massive increase in agricultural productivity and net output. This in turn contributed to unprecedented population growth, freeing up a significant percentage of the workforce, and thereby helped enable the Industrial Revolution . Historians cited enclosure , mechanization , four-field crop rotation , and selective breeding as the most important innovations. Industrial agriculture arose in

3515-655: The 1848 revolutions sought political freedom, but few, save perhaps the Wends, went for religious freedom. The German settlements in Texas reflected their diversity. Even in the confined area of the Hill Country, each valley offered a different kind of German. The Llano valley had stern, teetotaling German Methodists, who renounced dancing and fraternal organizations; the Pedernales valley had fun-loving, hardworking Lutherans and Catholics who enjoyed drinking and dancing; and

3610-403: The 1970s, scientists created high-yielding varieties of maize, wheat , and rice. These have an increased nitrogen-absorbing potential compared to other varieties. Since cereals that absorbed extra nitrogen would typically lodge (fall over) before harvest, semi-dwarfing genes were bred into their genomes. Norin 10 wheat , a variety developed by Orville Vogel from Japanese dwarf wheat varieties,

3705-694: The 19th century, German immigrants settled in Midwest, where land was available. Cities along the Great Lakes, the Ohio River, and the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers attracted a large German element. The Midwestern cities of Milwaukee , Cincinnati , St. Louis , Chicago were favored destinations of German immigrants. The Northern Kentucky and Louisville area along the Ohio River was also

3800-628: The 19th century, pressure increased from the Russian government to culturally assimilate. Many Germans from Russia found it necessary to emigrate to avoid conscription and preserve their culture. About 100,000 immigrated by 1900, settling primarily in the Great Plains . Negatively influenced by the violation of their rights and cultural persecution by the Tsar , the Germans from Russia who settled in

3895-634: The 21st century. Few German immigrants settled in the Deep South , apart from New Orleans , the German Coast , and Texas. Texas attracted many Germans who entered through Galveston and Indianola , both those who came to farm, and later immigrants who more rapidly took industrial jobs in cities such as Houston. As in Milwaukee , Germans in Houston built the brewing industry. By the 1920s,

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3990-704: The Arion Ball in 1892 at Madison Square Garden to celebrate the four hundredth anniversary of Columbus's discovery of America . The society commissioned Bolossy Kiralfy for the event. The 1898 ball, also held at Madison Square Garden, had an Egyptian theme. It was disbanded because of Anti-German sentiment following World War I . This New York City –related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . German-American German Americans (German: Deutschamerikaner , pronounced [ˈdɔʏtʃʔameʁɪˌkaːnɐ] ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. According to

4085-697: The British Lords Proprietor) in the Piedmont of North Carolina in 1753. The tract was dubbed Wachau-die-Aue , Latinized Wachovia , because the streams and meadows reminded Moravian settlers of the Wachau valley in Austria . They established German settlements on that tract, especially in the area around what is now Winston-Salem . They also founded the transitional settlement of Bethabara, North Carolina , translated as House of Passage,

4180-799: The Burnetsfield Patent. By 1750, the Germans occupied a strip some 12 miles (19 km) long along both sides of the Mohawk River . The soil was excellent; some 500 houses were built, mostly of stone, and the region prospered in spite of Indian raids. Herkimer was the best-known of the German settlements in a region long known as the "German Flats". They kept to themselves, married their own, spoke German, attended Lutheran churches, and retained their own customs and foods. They emphasized farm ownership. Some mastered English to become conversant with local legal and business opportunities. They tolerated slavery (although few were rich enough to own

4275-687: The German immigrants who sailed across the Atlantic to Virginia and the British queen, Anne , who was in power at the time of the first settlement at Germanna. In 1721, twelve German families departed Germanna to found Germantown . They were swiftly replaced by 70 new German arrivals from the Palatinate , the start of a westward and southward trend of German migration and settlement across the Virginia Piedmont and Shenandoah Valley around

4370-519: The German states , a wave of political refugees fled to America, who became known as Forty-Eighters . They included professionals, journalists, and politicians. Prominent Forty-Eighters included Carl Schurz and Henry Villard . "Latin farmer" or Latin Settlement is the designation of several settlements founded by some of the Dreissiger and other refugees from Europe after rebellions like

4465-513: The Germans rich lands on the right bank of the Mississippi River about 25 miles (40 km) above New Orleans. The area is now known as 'the German Coast '." A thriving population of Germans lived upriver from New Orleans , Louisiana, known as the German Coast . They were attracted to the area through pamphlets such as J. Hanno Deiler's "Louisiana: A Home for German Settlers". Two waves of German colonists in 1714 and 1717 founded

4560-723: The Guadalupe valley had freethinking Germans descended from intellectual political refugees. The scattered German ethnic islands were also diverse. These small enclaves included Lindsay in Cooke County, largely Westphalian Catholic; Waka in Ochiltree County, Midwestern Mennonite; Hurnville in Clay County, Russian German Baptist; and Lockett in Wilbarger County, Wendish Lutheran. Germans from Russia were

4655-593: The Industrial Revolution. By the early 19th century, agricultural techniques, implements, seed stocks, and cultivars had so improved that yield per land unit was many times that seen in the Middle Ages . The first phase involved a continuing process of mechanization. Horse-drawn machinery such as the McCormick reaper revolutionized harvesting, while inventions such as the cotton gin reduced

4750-586: The Philippines. They are also found in other rice-growing regions such as Piedmont (Italy), the Camargue (France), and the Artibonite Valley (Haiti). They can occur naturally along rivers or marshes , or can be constructed, even on hillsides. They require large water quantities for irrigation, much of it from flooding. It gives an environment favourable to the strain of rice being grown, and

4845-632: The Twelve Aprils grazing program for dairy production, developed by the USDA - SARE , forage crops for dairy herds are planted into a perennial pasture. Rotational grazing is a variety of foraging in which herds or flocks are regularly and systematically moved to fresh, rested grazing areas (sometimes called paddocks ) to maximize the quality and quantity of forage growth. It can be used with cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, and other animals. The herds graze one portion of pasture, or

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4940-524: The U.S. ramped up sharply during the 19th century. There is a German belt consisting of areas with predominantly German American populations that extends across the United States from eastern Pennsylvania, where many of the first German Americans settled, to the Oregon coast. Pennsylvania, with 3.5 million people of German ancestry, has the largest population of German-Americans in the U.S. and

5035-485: The United States in 2020. The Germans included many quite distinct subgroups with differing religious and cultural values. Lutherans and Catholics typically opposed Yankee moralizing programs such as the prohibition of beer, and favored paternalistic families with the husband deciding the family position on public affairs. They generally opposed women's suffrage but this was used as argument in favor of suffrage when German Americans became pariahs during World War I. On

5130-582: The application of lime , fertilizers, and pesticides . Depending on the productivity goals of the target agricultural system, more involved restoration projects can be undertaken to replace invasive and under-productive grasses with grass species that are better suited to the soil and climate conditions of the region. These intensified grass systems allow higher stocking rates with faster animal weight gain and reduced time to slaughter, resulting in more productive, carbon-efficient livestock systems. Another technique to optimize yield while maintaining

5225-426: The association with intensive agricultural farming practices. For example the infectious salmon anaemia (ISA) virus is causing significant economic loss for salmon farms. The ISA virus is an orthomyxovirus with two distinct clades, one European and one North American, that diverged before 1900 (Krossøy et al. 2001). This divergence suggests that an ancestral form of the virus was present in wild salmonids prior to

5320-781: The chance to start fresh in the New World. The arrivals before 1850 were mostly farmers who sought out the most productive land, where their intensive farming techniques would pay off. After 1840, many came to cities, where German-speaking districts emerged. German Americans established the first kindergartens in the United States, introduced the Christmas tree tradition, and introduced popular foods such as hot dogs and hamburgers to America. The great majority of people with some German ancestry have become Americanized ; fewer than five percent speak German. German-American societies abound, as do celebrations that are held throughout

5415-829: The colonists. German immigrants also settled in other areas of the American South , including around the Dutch (Deutsch) Fork area of South Carolina , and Texas, especially in the Austin and San Antonio areas. Between 1742 and 1753, roughly 1,000 Germans settled in Broad Bay, Massachusetts (now Waldoboro, Maine ). Many of the colonists fled to Boston , Maine, Nova Scotia, and North Carolina after their houses were burned and their neighbors killed or carried into captivity by Native Americans. The Germans who remained found it difficult to survive on farming, and eventually turned to

5510-725: The cost of processing. During this same period, farmers began to use steam-powered threshers and tractors . In 1892, the first gasoline-powered tractor was successfully developed, and in 1923, the International Harvester Farmall tractor became the first all-purpose tractor, marking an inflection point in the replacement of draft animals with machines. Mechanical harvesters ( combines ), planters, transplanters, and other equipment were then developed, further revolutionizing agriculture. These inventions increased yields and allowed individual farmers to manage increasingly large farms. The identification of nitrogen , phosphorus , and potassium (NPK) as critical factors in plant growth led to

5605-480: The country to celebrate German heritage of which the German-American Steuben Parade in New York City is one of the most well-known and is held every third Saturday in September. Oktoberfest celebrations and the German-American Day are popular festivities. There are major annual events in cities with German heritage including Chicago, Cincinnati , Milwaukee , Pittsburgh , San Antonio , and St. Louis . Around 180,000 permanent residents from Germany were living in

5700-417: The deterioration of agricultural land and even regenerate soil health and ecosystem services . These developments may fall in the category of organic farming , or the integration of organic and conventional agriculture. Pasture cropping involves planting grain crops directly into grassland without first applying herbicides. The perennial grasses form a living mulch understory to the grain crop, eliminating

5795-430: The famous blade town of Solingen . With their skills, they made wagons that carried the frontiersmen westward; their cannons provided the Union Army with artillery in the American Civil War , and their automobile company became one of the largest in America, although never eclipsing the "Big Three", and was a factor in the war effort and in the industrial foundations of the Army. Great Britain, whose King George III

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5890-401: The first colonization of Louisiana with German immigrants. Of the over 5,000 Germans initially immigrating primarily from the Alsace Region as few as 500 made up the first wave of immigrants to leave France en route to the Americas. Less than 150 of those first indentured German farmers made it to Louisiana and settled along what became known as the German Coast. With tenacity, determination and

5985-401: The first generation of college-educated German Americans were moving into the chemical and oil industries. Texas had about 20,000 German Americans in the 1850s. They did not form a uniform bloc, but were highly diverse and drew from geographic areas and all sectors of European society, except that very few aristocrats or upper middle class businessmen arrived. In this regard, Texas Germania was

6080-622: The first planned Moravian community in North Carolina, in 1759. Soon after, the German Moravians founded the town of Salem in 1766 (now a historical section in the center of Winston-Salem) and Salem College (an early female college) in 1772. In the Georgia Colony , Germans mainly from the Swabia region settled in Savannah, St. Simon's Island and Fort Frederica in the 1730s and 1740s. They were actively recruited by James Oglethorpe and quickly distinguished themselves through improved farming, advanced tabby (cement) -construction, and leading joint Lutheran- Anglican -Reformed religious services for

6175-592: The food supply . The discovery of vitamins and their role in nutrition , in the first two decades of the 20th century, led to vitamin supplements, which in the 1920s allowed some livestock to be raised indoors, reducing their exposure to adverse natural elements. Following World War II synthetic fertilizer use increased rapidly. The discovery of antibiotics and vaccines facilitated raising livestock by reducing diseases. Developments in logistics and refrigeration as well as processing technology made long-distance distribution feasible. Integrated pest management

6270-466: The individual members of bee colonies disappear. (Agricultural production is highly dependent on bees to pollinate many varieties of fruits and vegetables.) Intensive farming creates conditions for parasite growth and transmission that are vastly different from what parasites encounter in natural host populations, potentially altering selection on a variety of traits such as life-history traits and virulence. Some recent epidemic outbreaks have highlighted

6365-409: The introduction of cage-cultured salmonids. As the virus spread from vertical transmission (parent to offspring) . Intensive monoculture increases the risk of failures due to pests , adverse weather and disease. A study for the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment concluded that regarding industrial agriculture, there is a "negative relationship between the trend toward increasing farm size and

6460-527: The island of Bali and the Banaue Rice Terraces in Banaue, Ifugao , Philippines . In Peru , the Inca made use of otherwise unusable slopes by building drystone walls to create terraces known as Andéns . A paddy field is a flooded parcel of arable land used for growing rice and other semiaquatic crops . Paddy fields are a typical feature of rice-growing countries of east and southeast Asia , including Malaysia, China, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Taiwan, Indonesia, India , and

6555-425: The leadership of D'arensburg these Germans felled trees, cleared land, and cultivated the soil with simple hand tools as draft animals were not available. The German coast settlers supplied the budding City of New Orleans with corn, rice, eggs. and meat for many years following. The Mississippi Company settled thousands of German pioneers in French Louisiana during 1721. It encouraged Germans, particularly Germans of

6650-484: The loss of their language, the ethnic group remains distinct, and has left a lasting impression on the American West. Musician Lawrence Welk (1903–1992) became an iconic figure in the German-Russian community of the northern Great Plains—his success story personified the American dream. Intensive farming Most commercial agriculture is intensive in one or more ways. Forms that rely heavily on industrial methods are often called industrial agriculture , which

6745-434: The main drivers of global warming , accounting for 14–28% of net greenhouse gas emissions . Many of the negative effects of industrial agriculture may emerge at some distance from fields and farms. Nitrogen compounds from the Midwest, for example, travel down the Mississippi to degrade coastal fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico, causing so-called oceanic dead zones . Many wild plant and animal species have become extinct on

6840-488: The manifesto of their settlement the ability to practice their respective Christian denominations, retain their culture and language, and retain immunity from conscription for them and their descendants. As time passed, the Russian monarchy gradually eroded the ethnic German population's relative autonomy. Conscription eventually was reinstated; this was especially harmful to the Mennonites, who practice pacifism. Throughout

6935-496: The manufacture of synthetic fertilizers , further increasing crop yields . In 1909, the Haber-Bosch method to synthesize ammonium nitrate was first demonstrated. NPK fertilizers stimulated the first concerns about industrial agriculture, due to concerns that they came with side effects such as soil compaction , soil erosion , and declines in overall soil fertility , along with health concerns about toxic chemicals entering

7030-567: The meat, dairy products , eggs , fruits, and vegetables available in supermarkets are produced by such farms. Some intensive farms can use sustainable methods , although this typically necessitates higher inputs of labor or lower yields. Sustainably increasing agricultural productivity , especially on smallholdings , is an important way to decrease the amount of land needed for farming and slow and reverse environmental degradation caused by processes such as deforestation . Intensive animal farming involves large numbers of animals raised on

7125-709: The most traditional of German-speaking arrivals. They were Germans who had lived for generations throughout the Russian Empire , but especially along the Volga River and the Black Sea . Their ancestors had come from all over the German-speaking world, invited by Catherine the Great in 1762 and 1763 to settle and introduce more advanced German agriculture methods to rural Russia. They had been promised by

7220-566: The need for de-wormers. With the increased productivity of rotational systems, the animals may need less supplemental feed than in continuous grazing systems. Farmers can therefore increase stocking rates. Intensive livestock farming or "factory farming", is the process of raising livestock in confinement at high stocking density. " Concentrated animal feeding operations " (CAFO), or "intensive livestock operations", can hold large numbers (some up to hundreds of thousands) of cows, hogs, turkeys, or chickens, often indoors. The essence of such farms

7315-768: The need to plant cover crops after harvest . The pasture is intensively grazed both before and after grain production. This intensive system yields equivalent farmer profits (partly from increased livestock forage) while building new topsoil and sequestering up to 33 tons of CO 2 /ha/year. Biointensive agriculture focuses on maximizing efficiency such as per unit area, energy input and water input. Agroforestry combines agriculture and orchard/forestry technologies to create more integrated, diverse, productive, profitable, healthy and sustainable land-use systems. Intercropping can increase yields or reduce inputs and thus represents (potentially sustainable) agricultural intensification. However, while total yield per unit land area

7410-543: The northern Midwest saw themselves as a downtrodden ethnic group separate from Russian Americans and having an entirely different experience from the German Americans who had emigrated from German lands. They settled in tight-knit communities who retained their German language and culture. They raised large families, built German-style churches, buried their dead in distinctive cemeteries using cast iron grave markers, and sang German hymns. Many farmers specialized in

7505-452: The old country dominated the city's Socialists . Skilled workers dominated many crafts, while entrepreneurs created the brewing industry; the most famous brands included Pabst , Schlitz , Miller , and Blatz . Whereas half of German immigrants settled in cities, the other half established farms in the Midwest . From Ohio to the Plains states, a heavy presence persists in rural areas into

7600-579: The opportunity to own land, and religious freedom. Often immigrants paid for their passage by selling their labor for a period of years as indentured servants . Large sections of Pennsylvania, Upstate New York , and the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia attracted Germans. Most were Lutheran or German Reformed ; many belonged to small religious sects such as the Moravians and Mennonites . German Catholics did not arrive in number until after

7695-762: The other hand, there were Protestant groups who emerged from European pietism such as the German Methodist and United Brethren; they more closely resembled the Yankee Methodists in their moralism. The first English settlers arrived at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607, and were accompanied by the first German that was to settle in North America, physician and botanist Johannes (John) Fleischer (in South America Ambrosius Ehinger had already founded Maracaibo in 1529). He

7790-581: The patriot side . The Muhlenberg family, led by Rev. Henry Muhlenberg was especially influential on the Patriot side. His son Peter Muhlenberg , a Lutheran clergyman in Virginia became a major general and later a Congressman. However, in upstate New York, many Germans were neutral or supported the Loyalist cause. From names in the 1790 U.S. census, historians estimate Germans constituted nearly 9% of

7885-712: The population. By 1850 there were 5,000 Germans, mostly Schwabians living in, and around, Ann Arbor, Michigan . Many concentrations acquired distinctive names suggesting their heritage, such as the " Over-the-Rhine " district in Cincinnati, " Dutchtown " in South St Louis, and " German Village " in Columbus, Ohio. A particularly attractive destination was Milwaukee , which came to be known as "the German Athens ". Radical Germans trained in politics in

7980-659: The production of sugar beets and wheat, which are still major crops in the upper Great Plains. During World War   I, their identity was challenged by anti-German sentiment . By the end of World War   II, the German language, which had always been used with English for public and official matters, was in serious decline. Today, German is preserved mainly through singing groups, recipes, and educational settings. While most descendants of Germans from Russia primarily speak English, many are choosing to learn German in an attempt to reconnect with their heritage. Germans from Russia often use loanwords , such as Kuchen for cake. Despite

8075-435: The shipping and fishing industries. The tide of German immigration to Pennsylvania swelled between 1725 and 1775, with immigrants arriving as redemptioners or indentured servants. By 1775, Germans constituted about one-third of the population of the state. German farmers were renowned for their highly productive animal husbandry and agricultural practices. Politically, they were generally inactive until 1740, when they joined

8170-408: The system had grown to between 4 and 5 million. Aquaculture is the cultivation of the natural products of water ( fish , shellfish , algae , seaweed , and other aquatic organisms). Intensive aquaculture takes place on land using tanks, ponds, or other controlled systems, or in the ocean, using cages. Intensive farming practices which are thought to be sustainable have been developed to slow

8265-735: The time in Belleville, Illinois until his death. A few German Jews came in the colonial era . The largest numbers arrived after 1820, especially in the mid-19th century. They spread across the North and South (and California, where Levi Strauss arrived in 1853). They formed small German-Jewish communities in cities and towns. They typically were local and regional merchants selling clothing; others were livestock dealers, agricultural commodity traders, bankers, and operators of local businesses. Henry Lehman , who founded Lehman Brothers in Alabama,

8360-525: The total population of people of German ancestry in the world. The first significant groups of German immigrants arrived in the British colonies in the 1670s, and they settled primarily in the colonial states of Pennsylvania , New York , and Virginia . The Mississippi Company of France later transported thousands of Germans from Europe to what was then the German Coast, Orleans Territory in present-day Louisiana between 1718 and 1750. Immigration to

8455-482: The white population in the United States. The brief Fries's Rebellion was an anti-tax movement among Germans in Pennsylvania in 1799–1800. The largest flow of German immigration to America occurred between 1820 and World War   I , during which time nearly six million Germans immigrated to the United States. From 1840 to 1880, they were the largest group of immigrants. Following the Revolutions of 1848 in

8550-591: Was a particularly prominent example of such a German-Jewish immigrant. They formed Reform synagogues and sponsored numerous local and national philanthropic organizations, such as B'nai B'rith . This German-speaking group is quite distinct from the Yiddish-speaking East-European Jews who arrived in much larger numbers starting in the late 19th century and concentrated in New York. The port cities of New York City, and Baltimore had large populations, as did Hoboken, New Jersey . In

8645-568: Was also the Elector of Hanover in Germany, hired 18,000 Hessians . They were mercenary soldiers rented out by the rulers of several small German states such as Hesse to fight on the British side. Many were captured; they remained as prisoners during the war but some stayed and became U.S. citizens. In the American Revolution the Mennonites and other small religious sects were neutral pacifists. The Lutherans of Pennsylvania were on

8740-455: Was enacted to protect and restore lakes and rivers to a "fishable, swimmable" quality. The United States Environmental Protection Agency identified certain animal feeding operations, along with many other types of industry, as "point source" groundwater polluters. These operations were subjected to regulation. In 17 states in the U.S., isolated cases of groundwater contamination were linked to CAFOs. The U.S. federal government acknowledges

8835-605: Was followed in 1608 by five glassmakers and three carpenters or house builders. The first permanent German settlement in what became the United States was Germantown, Pennsylvania , founded near Philadelphia on October 6, 1683. Large numbers of Germans migrated from the 1680s to 1760s, with Pennsylvania the favored destination. They migrated to America for a variety of reasons. Push factors involved worsening opportunities for farm ownership in central Europe, persecution of some religious groups, and military conscription; pull factors were better economic conditions, especially

8930-714: Was instrumental in developing wheat cultivars. IR8 , the first widely implemented high-yielding rice to be developed by the International Rice Research Institute , was created through a cross between an Indonesian variety named "Peta" and a Chinese variety named "Dee Geo Woo Gen". With the availability of molecular genetics in Arabidopsis and rice the mutant genes responsible ( reduced height (rht) , gibberellin insensitive (gai1) and slender rice (slr1) ) have been cloned and identified as cellular signalling components of gibberellic acid ,

9025-590: Was the largest single immigration to America in the colonial period. Most were first settled along the Hudson River in work camps, to pay off their passage. By 1711, seven villages had been established in New York on the Robert Livingston manor. In 1723 Germans became the first Europeans allowed to buy land in the Mohawk Valley west of Little Falls . One hundred homesteads were allocated in

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