America has a lot going for it, and the ability to feed itself would be at the top of the list. The country is rich in arable farmland.
This important truth is one that suffuses this collection of harvest-time photos taken during LIFE’s original run from 1936 to 1972. The crops being harvested in these photos include corn, wheat, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, celery, grapes, peaches, squash and watermelon. It’s a veritable cornucopia.
(The photographers at work here are a bumper crop too, including LIFE staffers Margaret Bourke-White, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Joe Scherschel, Wallace Kirkland and many others).
It’s worth noting that much has changed about America’s farms since these photos were taken, with the family farm giving way to large-scale agribusiness. According to data from the U.S Department of Agriculture, the number of farms in the United States reached their peak in 1935, at around 7 million. Then came a period of rapid decline, with the total hitting 2 million by the 1970s before leveling off some. The total acreage of farmland didn’t change that much, though, because while the number of farms decreased, their size multiplied.
LIFE was very much aware of this change as it was happening, and worried that it was bad for the country. The magazine fretted in 1948 that the decline of the family farm might also signal the decline of the American family, as families stopped focussing on joint enterprises and its members pursued their individual interests instead. Some of the warmest and most nostalgic images in this collection are those of community, showing people working in unison or taking a break to enjoy a communal meal—with members of a found family, if not an actual one.
Not much is known about the particular farms or farmers in most of these images, though some of the photos, by Michael Rougier, were taken for a story about migrant workers. In all cases, through, there is a connection to the land, and reminder of what it takes for Americans to get their fruits and vegetables.
Harvesters hitchhiked to a wheat harvesting, Oklahoma, 1942.
Alfred Eisenstaedt/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Farm workers harvested onions, Burbank, California, 1952.
Margaret Bourke-White/Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Wheat harvest, Texas, 1949.
Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Wheat harvest, Texas, 1949.
Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Wheat harvest, Texas, 1949.
Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Wheat harvest, Texas, 1949.
Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Scene from a New Hampshire apple harvest, 1963.
Leonard McCombe/Life Picture Collection/Shiutterstock
An Illinois watermelon harvest, 1946.
Wallace Kirkland/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Nebraska corn harvesters, 1944.
Photo by Wallace Kirkland
Child playing with corn on the farm, Nebraska, 1944.
Wallace Kirkland/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The Nebraska corn harvest, 1944.
Wallace Kirkland/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Migrant workers harvesting potatoes, 1959.
Michael Rougier The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Migrant workers harvesting potatoes, 1959.
Michael Rougier The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Migrant farm workers harvested celery in California, 1959.
Michael Rougier The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Workers harvesting watermelons in the Imperial Valley, California, 1947.
Loomis Dean/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Migrant workers harvesting watermelons in the Imperial Valley, California, 1947.
Loomis Dean/LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Celery harvesting in Florida, 1951.
Howard Sochurek/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Peach harvest, 1946.
Wallace Kirkland/LIfe Picture Collection/Shutterstock
A view of a man unloading bushels of freshly-harvested tomatoes at a produce market in Michigan, 1946
Wallace Kirkland/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Harvesting Boston marrow squash at Seabrook Farms in New Jersey, 1954.
Yale Joel/Life Picture Collectioh/Shutterstock
Women inspecting and checking beans at the Seabrook Farms in New Jersey, 1954.
Yale Joel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Seabrook Farms in New Jersey, 1954.
Yale Joel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Harvest farm hands ate lunch served by their wives in kitchen of a farmhouse, Wichita, Kansas, 1954.
Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt/The LIFE Picture Collection © Meredith Corporation
Farmers had lunch brought and served by their wives as they paused briefly during harvest of Springer wheat, Minnesota, 1943
Gordon Coster/Life PIcture Collection/Shutterstock
