Introduction and text, pp. 1-54 |
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Object Description
| Title | John Melendy : Santa Cruz county farm advisor, 1947-1976 / interviewed by Meri Knaster ; edited by Irene Reti |
| Series Title | Agricultural History of Santa Cruz County |
| Creator |
Melendy, John, narrator Knaster, Meri, interviewer Reti, Irene, 1961- , editor |
| Publisher | Santa Cruz, Calif. : University of California, Santa Cruz, University Library |
| Date of Publication | 2004 |
| Description/Abstract | Melendy served as a Santa Cruz County Farm Advisor with the Agricultural Extension Service for thirty years, including ten as County Director of the Agricultural Extension Service, an administrative position. His duties also encompassed being a youth or 4-H advisor and a poultry/livestock/field crops advisor. In this oral history conducted in 1977, John Melendy discusses changes in agriculture in Santa Cruz County from 1940s through the 1970s—how rising land prices affected the types of crops grown, the effects of mechanization, farm size, pest control and controversies over pesticide use that were only beginning to come to light at that time. A substantial portion of the interview is devoted to a detailed discussion of the rise and fall of the poultry industry in the Live Oak area. In addition to providing a history of agriculture in Santa Cruz County, Melendy’s narrative contributes to the institutional history of Agricultural Extension Service itself, particularly the position of farm advisor. In 1975 the Extension Service (by then called Cooperative Extension) merged with the Agricultural Experiment Station and became the Division of Agricultural and Natural Resources, which also oversees the University’s Natural Reserve System. While Melendy’s oral history is useful for its detailed descriptions of the methods and practices of farming in the mid-twentieth century on the Central Coast of California, it also documents the tremendous changes, which swept Santa Cruz County from 1946 to 1976, as it transitioned from a largely rural, to the urban or suburban landscape it is today. John Melendy retired in December 1976, and at the time of this oral history interview in 1977 was enjoying operating a Christmas tree farm on San Miguel Canyon Rd. Oral historian Meri Knaster conducted three interviews with him at his home in Soquel, California as part of the Regional History Project’s Agricultural History series. Melendy was fifty-six years old at the time. |
| Subject.LCSH |
Agriculture Santa Cruz County (Calif.) Poultry industry Agricultural extension work University of California Agricultural Extension Service |
| Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Original Size | 169 leaves : col. port. ; 29 cm |
| Notes | Interview conducted by the Regional History Project in 1977 as part of a series on local agricultural history |
| Owning Institution & Contact Info | University of California, Santa Cruz. McHenry Library, Regional History Project. 1156 High Street. Santa Cruz, CA, 95064. (831) 459-2847. ihreti@ucsc.edu |
| Owning Institution Homepage | http://library.ucsc.edu/reg-hist/ |
| Copyright Statement | PLEASE NOTE: These interviews are provided for research purposes only. All uses of these manuscripts are covered by copyright agreement between the interviewees and the Regents of the University of California. All the literary rights in these manuscripts, including the right to publish, are reserved to the University of California, Santa Cruz. No part of these manuscripts may be quoted for publication without the permission of the University Librarian of the University of California, Santa Cruz. |
| Viewing note | For the best viewing experience, we recommend the following browsers: Safari 5+, Internet Explorer 8.0+, Google Chrome 12+. The recommended viewer for PDF transcript and text files is Adobe® Reader® version 8.0+. Please contact us if you have problems accessing the oral histories. |
Description
| Title | Introduction and text, pp. 1-54 |
| Owning Institution & Contact Info | University of California, Santa Cruz. McHenry Library, Regional History Project. 1156 High Street. Santa Cruz, CA, 95064. (831) 459-2847. ihreti@ucsc.edu |
| Owning Institution Homepage | http://library.ucsc.edu/reg-hist/ |
| Copyright Statement | PLEASE NOTE: These interviews are provided for research purposes only. All uses of these manuscripts are covered by copyright agreement between the interviewees and the Regents of the University of California. All the literary rights in these manuscripts, including the right to publish, are reserved to the University of California, Santa Cruz. No part of these manuscripts may be quoted for publication without the permission of the University Librarian of the University of California, Santa Cruz. |
| Viewing note | For the best viewing experience, we recommend the following browsers: Safari 5+, Internet Explorer 8.0+, Google Chrome 12+. The recommended viewer for PDF transcript and text files is Adobe® Reader® version 8.0+. Please contact us if you have problems accessing the oral histories. |
