announcer: you are watching american history tv all weekend every weekend on c-span3. to join the conversation, like us on facebook. this year, c-span is touring cities across the country exploring american history. next, recent visit to lubbock texas. you are watching american history tv all weekend every weekend on c-span3. >> it is a huge agricultural area. even though we have over 250,000 people just in lubbock proper, not including the surrounding communities, we are called the hub of the area, but is still revolves around agriculture. one thing we have learned is how

agriculture does, whether it succeeds or fails, if it has a good year or bad, it affects the rest of the economy in the community. at the heart of everything is a passion for education. in about 2001, a group of civic leaders, some involved in agriculture, some in government, came together and saw a massive collection of agricultural artifacts. harvesters,ows, cotton related artifact. they decided they needed to be on display for the public. we did not have a museum. they established the museum of agriculture with the help of bayer crop science. their global cotton headquarters are based right here in lubbock. this area used to be big ranches, millions of acres. slowly it was converted to agriculture since it is more

profitable. starting in the 1930's, there was a lot of push to break out a lot of the country into the farmland. this is the last area in the u.s. that grew cotton. this was new cotton growing, compared to other parts of the united states. we are the largest cotton growing area in the world, in one area. 3.5 millionhalf -- through 4 million acres right here. 100 miles south of lubbock all the way to the top of the panhandle. we grow 5.5 to 5.6 bales in this area this year. texas will grow 9.5 million so we are more than half of texas. we are about one fourth of the haved states, we always one fourth through grown right one third here. cotton began in the northeast, there was some in virginia, the carolinas, georgia. that part of the united states

was populated first, one of the reasons. cotton was grown, and the invention of the cotton gin in 1793 escalated the growth of cotton. this display here, we have taken the cotton gin from the eli whitney time in 1793. it was a hand powered gin. before that, the individual separated the lint from the seed and about one pound per day was all they could do. the cotton gin, invented by eli whitney could dress 50 pounds per day. usinge a time period, five different time periods, the progression of the equipment of the cotton gin, going from hand turned, waterpowered, internal combustion and electrical powered. our final phase, the fifth stage

of the cotton gin, the machine will do about 10,000 pounds per hour versus 50 pounds per day with the invention of the gin. we just expanded on the efficiency and speed. it's a pretty neat exhibit here, explaining the different time in iod with the cotton gin equipment. in my time, we transferred from hand harvesting cotton, as we show here, it's hard to imagine that we used to harvest 15 million plus bales totally by hand in the u.s. we have transitioned to a harvester that was mule-drawn in 1930 one and transitioned to some of the earlier machines. the first tractor mounted

harvester by john deere is in the background. trying to show different aspects of how harvest has transitioned from hand harvest to the modern-day machine we have in the other building. it can harvest up to what 1,000 people would harvest in one day, that machine can do it by itself. one thing we are trying to show off in these areas, somebody that knows nothing about cotton can leave here feeling like they got some knowledge. we have a display case with samples of cotton. cotton is all graded by the usda, so it is an unbiased party. it is all the same standard across the u.s. there are four grading offices in texas. one in lubbock, 150 miles from here, and to others. i forget how many, seven or eight in the whole nation.

they grade the cotton primarily on eight different factors. amount of trash in it, the length of the fibers, the color of the fiber is a big part. if we get a lot of rain and it is harvested wrong, it might not discolor, you want it to be a bright white. all these different factors. cotton have so many factors that can come into play. we have a bale of cotton here that was actually drawn on my farm. we show a grade and explain the different factors that make the grade up. when you put 8 combinations of factors, you end up with a lot of combinations in the final grade. cotton has been good to our life. we owned and operated a cotton gin, and after teaching agriculture in high school for

11 years, got into managing a cotton gin, and later buying shares of it and then owning 100% of it. we owned a small gin, 1,600 bales the first year, to 116,000 in 2007. we had 85,500 bale average in 2010. we have had a lot of growth but the county i was in -- just to give you some scope of the industry -- we had 34 operating gins when i went in, today there are six in that county. those six are probably doing more than the 34 used to. the ginning is at a new level, a lot easier than it used to be the equipment is better, with , the modern technology. you can pull up your phone and watch it run. all of that.

we talk about the good old days, but some of that was not as good if you were there. modern-day agriculture is very exciting. there is so much out there. we have seen so much improvement in cotton in the last 20 years. it is phenomenal what has happened. a lot of that started right here in lubbock, texas. >> education is key to us. you would think, once you get out of the main part of lubbock, you see cotton and crops everywhere. you see john deere dealerships, you see case tractors, things tied to agriculture. but we have noticed with field trip groups, those kids still don't make that connection that what they are seeing in the fields, the equipment, helps grow the food they eat, the clothes they wear. milk does not magically appear on the shelf.

there is a lot that goes into that, making the cotton and the yarn. a lot of dairies have moved to this area. milk is a big deal in this area. i think it is the story behind it that makes it such a phenomenal industry to be involved in. those people work hard every day. they don't necessarily work 8:00 until 5:00, they work until the work is done. they have a lot of factors other industries don't deal with, we desperately need rain right now. you have to depend on input costs, the government to make the right decisions to help support, so you can come out and hopefully make a little more than it cost to grow the crowd. -- grow the crop so you can support your families. i think some people worry that

it is all big agriculture, big corporate farms, that is not necessarily true in our area. there might be multiple families involved in an operation, but it is still families. families feeding families. those involved in a culture consider agriculture a noble calling. announcer: our cities tour's staff originally traveled to lubbock texas. learn about other stops on our span.org. you are watching american history tv on c-span3. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] announcer: next on history bookshelf, john cedric talks -- john sedwig talks about his