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Collections Record
Minnesota Water Resources Board Oral History Project: Interview with Horace Thomas
Titles: Minnesota Water Resources Board Oral History Project: Interview with Horace Thomas (Supplied title)
Description: BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION: Born in 1903 in Coopersville, Michigan, graduated from Michigan State University, 1926, continued in 1927 at the University of Minnesota in a five-year graduate assistantship program, then had one more year at the University of Illinois. His educational training was in soils and plant breeding. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Thomas recalls the changes he's seen in his lifetime; the difficult employment times during the Depression; his initial involvement with soil conservation due to job availability; his work in southeastern Minnesota explaining the new techniques and programs to farmers; then attributes to the federal government, particularly Agriculture Secretary Bennett, the success of the efforts to awaken people to the importance of soil conservation. He speaks briefly of dust storm memories from the 1930s when he worked in Grant County, the domestic and economic effects; joining the Minnesota Chapter of the Soil Conservation Society; the latter's importance and his role in it. He discusses the Demonstration Projects of the '30s, the establishment of the Soil Conservation Districts in 1937, and the public response to that. He talks some of the tension existing between the Extension Divisions of the Agricultural Colleges and the federal government over the establishment of the Soil Conservation Districts. He concludes with his feeling that a major success of the conservation movement effort was the educational aspect: soil erosion is no longer ignored.
Dates
- 08/07/1977 (Creation)
Creation
- interviewee: Thomas, Horace
- interviewer: Copeland, Tom
Identifiers
- Library Call Number: OH 18
- Accession Number: AV1992.251.6
Holding Type: Oral History - Interview
Project
Quantity: 1 hour sound cassette
Format
- Content Category: sound recordings
Measurements
- 00:37:43 running time
Subjects
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Audio:
Audio Part 1
Audio Part 2