American Agriculture In The Late 1800s Essay

Throughout the late 1800's, American agriculture went through a magnitude of changes. W hile there were many different factors that led to these changes, they can be sorted primarily into three categories; Technological contributions, government policies, and economic conditions.

The prominent technological advancements that influenced American agriculture were numerous, but chief among them were these; The rapidly spreading railroad systems, new machines and technology to make harvesting much easier, and factories with improved productivity and efficiency to more easily process the ever-increasing amounts of produce.

The spread of trains and railroad tracks across the country was a large boost to the United State's internal trading capabilities.

It brought the East and West closer to each other, and allowed the shipments of resources and supplies from one end of the continent to the other. This was, in turn, beneficial to the agricultural industry.
Farmers could only do their best to adapt to these new technologies, and utilize them to their advantages.
While technological advancements played an important role in agriculture, government policies held just as much sway over the fate of the industry. The government had the power to dictate crop production, limit freight rates on railroads, encroach upon Indian lands, and standardize the gold or silver standards in currency.
Throughout the history of the United States, the government has always had a vested interest in the agricultural pursuits of the people. In times of food shortage, the government could give farmers incentive to produce larger yields of crops. Or, in times a plenty, the government may try and persuade the farmers to produce less. Occasionally, this can create quite a mess. In the late 1800's, the government had told the farmers to raise a large crop in the upcoming year. When the farmers succeeded, and a massive crop was produced, prices plummeted. Farmers had done so much more work, farmed so much more produce, only to have their crops devaluate on them. This would lead to bitterness from the farming communities towards the politicians.
In the state of Illinois, the state government passed some laws that would allow a group of state officials to limit freight rates on the railroads, so the railroad companies couldn't extort the masses as easily. It was common practice for railroads to overcharge their customers whenever they could, ringing the most money they could from the pockets of private citizens, or small companies. The laws passed in the State of Illinois were an example to each other state of what could be done to stand against extortion and unfair prices. Unfortunately, Illinois was the only state to take action on the matter at the time.
The American Government was fairly anti Indian for a great portion of the 1800's. Taking away their lands, and forcing them onto reservations. As more time passed, the government took more and more land from the Indian's grasps. The reasoning behind this was that the Indians were "lazy", and it was a waste to leave such fertile lands under their control while homesteaders could make better use of it by developing and farming the land.
The government also had influence over the currency. Hundreds of thousands of farmers banded together into organizations, fighting for farmers rights and government help occasionally. In this case, the farmers wanted the nations currency to go on a silver standard, while their opponents were fighting for a gold standard.
Many of these changes in the agricultural community had the effect of bringing farmers closer together as a community, and increasing their voice in the government.
The last contributing category is economics. Low prices for crops, contracts between renting farmers and land owners, and lack of food and when crops failed was a problem that could lead to starvation.
When crops were produced in abundance, prices would begin to fall.

Any farmers who weren't able to produce a large enough crop to compete with other farmers would likely fall into debt. Plummeting crop prices were a large issue back in the day that many farmers didn't have the luck to avoid.

Some of these farmers who fell into debt would end up working for larger farms. Renting land to farm on, their land owners providing them with enough food to get by while taking the majority of the profits for themselves. Many black farmers were sucked into this trap and were forced to work for their former slave masters in a never-ending quest to pay off their debts.

One of the scariest prospects for farmers was that of a bad crop. If mother nature didn't smile on their fields, they very likely wouldn't have had the money or the food to make it through the tough times. A bad year for farming meant a bad year for the whole nation.

Farmers rode out these troubles the best they could. Low prices for their produce, debt, and a bad crop were all potential disasters in the agricultural community. But farmers are tough people.

In the end, the many different changes, both good and bad, helped grow the farming community in the United States. People were brought closer together, food was more abundant and available to the poor, a booming industry was being

solidified.