I've posted this before, but this time it's 50 years old this month. Illustrations from a two-page spread from the February 1970 issue of National Geographic; from an article titled "The Revolution in American Agriculture".

"Farm of the Future: Grainfields stretch like fairways and cattle pens resemble high-rise apartments in a farm of the early 21st century, , as portrayed by artist Davis Meltzer with the guidance of U.S. Department of Agriculture specialists.

     Attached to a modernistic farmhouse, a bubble-topped control tower hums with a computer, weather reports, and a farm-price ticker tape.  A remote-controlled tiller-combine glides across a 10-mile-long wheat field on tracks that keep the heavy machine from compacting the soil.  Threshed grain, funneled into a pneumatic tube beside the field, flows into storage elevators rising close to the distant city.  The same machine that cuts the grain prepares the land for another crop.  A similar device waters neighboring strips of soybeans as a jet-powered helicopter sprays insecticides.

     Across a service road, conical mills blend feed for beef cattle, fattening in multilevel pens that conserve ground space.  Tubes carry the feed to be mechanically distributed.  A central elevator transports the cattle up and down, while a tubular side drain flushes wastes to be broken down for fertilizer.  Beside the further pen, a processing plant packs beef into cylinders for shipment to market by helicopter and monorail.  Illuminated plastic domes provide controlled environments for growing high-value crops such as strawberries, tomatoes, and celery.  Near a distant lake and recreation area, a pumping plant supplies water for the vast operation."

(Future Farm 1 (full).jpg)

(Future Farm 2 (full).jpg)

Future Farm 1 (full).jpg (114KB - 73 downloads)

Future Farm 2 (full).jpg (128KB - 61 downloads)