The Great Wall of China is an ancient series of walls and fortifications, totaling more than 13,000 miles in length, located in northern China. Perhaps the most recognizable symbol of China and its long and vivid history, the Great Wall was originally conceived by Emperor Qin Shi Huang in the third century B.C. as a means of preventing incursions from barbarian nomads. The best-known and best-preserved section of the Great Wall was built in the 14th through 17th centuries A.D., during the Ming dynasty. Though the Great Wall never effectively prevented invaders from entering China, it came to function as a powerful symbol of Chinese civilization’s enduring strength.
Qin Dynasty Construction
Though the beginning of the Great Wall of China can be traced to the fifth century B.C., many of the fortifications included in the wall date from hundreds of years earlier, when China was divided into a number of individual kingdoms during the so-called Warring States Period.
Around 220 B.C., Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of a unified China under the Qin Dynasty, ordered that earlier fortifications between states be removed and a number of existing walls along the northern border be joined into a single system that would extend for more than 10,000 li (a li is about one-third of a mile) and protect China against attacks from the north.
Construction of the “Wan Li Chang Cheng,” or 10,000-Li-Long Wall, was one of the most ambitious building projects ever undertaken by any civilization. The famous Chinese general Meng Tian initially directed the project, and was said to have used a massive army of soldiers, convicts and commoners as workers.
Made mostly of earth and stone, the wall stretched from the China Sea port of Shanhaiguan over 3,000 miles west into Gansu province. In some strategic areas, sections of the wall overlapped for maximum security (including the Badaling stretch, north of Beijing, that was later restored during the Ming Dynasty).
From a base of 15 to 50 feet, the Great Wall rose some 15-30 feet high and was topped by ramparts 12 feet or higher; guard towers were distributed at intervals along it.
EPISODE 337 RESPONSES TO THE 16 ROW SEED DRILL (HOOKED TO GPS)
alan skeoch
May 2021
I got some interesting comments on this 12 row seed drill. Some small farms have survived but the big farms
are still getting bigger.
Our farm? Very small. 25 acres of the poorest land in Wellington County. Best crop is rock. The rocks just keep popping
up no matter how many times we pick them. Yet my grandparents, Ted and Louisa Freeman managed to eke out a living
from 1908 to 1958…with a lot of help from my mom and her brother Frank. The secret was a big garden and jobs off the
farm in two World Wars. The seed drill pictured above could not turn around on our farm…we would have to carve a highway
through the forest, over the swamps from the Fifth line to the Fourth Line. Then the drill could turn.
(If bored…take a look at the guy with big ears in the cloud above he tractor…right beside the guy with
no brain, just a hole in his head…Reading clouds is a pastime…see the snake with its mouth open?)
alan
Comments from friends
Well, Alan
…never saw a seed drill anything like this…points out how a young prospective farmer can no longer learn from his parent, nor manage anything like him. The future lies in specialized university education and revolutionizing everything that existed beforehand.
(Russ Vanstone)
Hi Alan
Our farm friend in Illinois calls us every Saturday. She just told us that she rode along on Friday while her renter planted corn. He has a new 24 row planter.
First, they drive the perimeter of the field so the GPS learns the dimensions of the field. That takes the time as they needed to skirt buildings. They planted 259 acres in 5 hours! They were also fertilizing from two tanks at the same time. The types of fertilizers are determined from soil analyses done earlier. The planter computer gives feedback about coverage of the planting. At one point they were getting a 96% reading and he stopped to adjust and then they were back up to 99 or 100%.
Amazing productivity and science. Her renter and his son farm about 5000 acres and grow both corn and soy beans in her area of Illinois.
Monica
Good morning Alan,
There are some 100 acre farms still surviving … My friends’ organic farm (100 acres) was purchased 40 years ago from a Mennonite family. It borders the Thames River just outside of St. Mary’s and has a gorgeous old farmhouse (2 storey brick, reminiscent of yours.) My sister and brother-in-law’s farm is just south of Owen South and part of it is included in the Niagara Escarpment trail. And our daughter Martha is married to Remi, who has always been a full-time farmer in Norfolk county. His land is spotted with gorgeous woods and ravines and ponds, all spring fed creeks which flow into Lake Erie, 15 miles south. He started with 100 acres, but now farms closer to 500 acres. He farms the land and rents out the farmhouses for another source of income. You’d enjoy meeting him. Very self-sufficient guy. Martha has 4 chickens that scratch around the house and 3 bunnies, plus a huge vegetable garden. They hope to get 2 goats this year and have a goat house and fenced yard ready for them.
