In this category are letters, diaries, catalogs, broadsides, photographs, tools, equipment, and buildings that document Ohio's agricultural heritage. Topics that are well documented include state and county fairs, farming at the Society of Separatists of Zoar settlement, sheep farming, and agricultural education.

Of special note is the Rotch Wales Collection, which includes many letters relating to early nineteenth-century agriculture, particularly in northwest Ohio. Also represented are Ohio firms that produced farm equipment, such as the Huber Manufacturing Company of Marion, Warder, Mitchell & Company of Springfield (makers of Champion reaping and mowing machines), and C & G Cooper & Company of Mt. Vernon. In addition, several items relate to the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station.

The Land

Ohio's state boundaries enclose 41,222 square miles. The southeast part of the state was not shaped by glaciers, and thus has more hills and generally poorer soil than unglaciated areas of Ohio. With a growing season of approximately 160 days and 30-40 inches of rain annually, all crops common to the Temperate Zone can be grown and all types of livestock raised.

American Indian Agriculture

Agriculture in what would later become the state of Ohio began with the Adena culture (1000 B.C.-A.D. 200). Archaeological evidence suggests that the Adena people grew pumpkins, gourds, sunflowers, and maize (corn). They used tools made of stone, animal bones, and tortoise shells to clear and cultivate the land. Later American Indian cultures-the Hopewell and Ft. Ancient peoples-also grew maize, along with beans, squash, and tobacco. Maize was the most important crop. American Indian women planted kernels in small hills, then planted beans among the corn hills that climbed the corn stalks. Women were also responsible for pounding the maize into meal.

American Indians of the historic period, which included the Wyandots, Shawnees, Delawares, Miamis, Mingoes, and Ottawas, used the same tools and grew many of the same crops as did the prehistoric Adena, Hopewell, and Ft. Ancient cultures. Those included maize, beans, squash, gourds, pumpkins, muskmelons, and watermelons. Especially important were sunflowers, which produced oil for cooking and cosmetic use, and tobacco, which men used in ceremonies and religious rites. After white settlers arrived in the Ohio country, the American Indians acquired iron tools, such as hoes and hatchets, and adopted some European farming methods. Most American Indian groups were removed from Ohio by 1825; the last group departed in 1842.