After the Civil War, the landscape of America began to change. Industry began developing, people began moving to cities, and farmers began having a much more difficult time making a living. While farming had always been a demanding profession, from the 1860s onward the problems increased. From buying seeds, to transporting crops, to getting a fair price on the market, this paper will review the troubles that came with farming and the why it was so difficult to resolve them. One of the struggles for many of the farmers in the second half of the 1800s was getting loans from banks. Farming was considered one of the more risky business ventures of the time and therefore loans had the interest rates to match. These interest rates were the bane …show more content…
of 75-90% of farmers who were forced to mortgage their land in order to survive (1). But though these rates were certainly difficult for the farmers, banks could just lower them. While greed was certainly a factor in the rates, the banks needed to have them as failure was a very real possibility when it came to farmers. Because land was fairly cheap, particularly in the Great Plains (2), the banks would be unlikely to be able to make their money back if the farm was foreclosed on and the bank might risk going bust. Steps were taken to solve this, however, by the forming of farmer cooperatives. Farmers came together to set up farmer-run stores in order to get items cheaper and avoid having to take out loans. While this did not solve the problem for the farmers, it did reduce it. A more serious problem for farmers was the incredible increase in competition.
As the second industrial revolution began, more and more corporations begin trying their hand at farming. These “bonanza” farms were huge and because they had the backing of a big business, they were able to afford the best farm equipment and keep their prices low (3). The massive production and low prices of these corporate farms were a serious problem for the family farmer in America, which, along with foreign competition on the global market, led to plummeting prices for crops. These low returns resulted in farmers planting more crops each year in a fight to make a profit, unfortunately, this resulted in overproduction and further declines in prices. But while this was a problem that threatened farmers' chances to make a living, there is little to be done to fix it, as it was simply capitalism at work. Higher tariffs might have been put into place on foreign crops, but until the problem became more serious, it was unlikely for the government to step in and regulate the number of crops each farm produced. It is important to remember that during this time, the idea of government intervention into private business is even more unpopular than it is …show more content…
now. The most harmful and widespread problem that farmers had to deal with is the lack of representation from politicians.
This happened as the political base moved from rural to more urban areas and with them moved the politician's focus. Many of the farmer's problems were caused by this lack of representation, as without anyone in power to protect them, they made for easy targets. For the farmers in the Great Plains, the railroads used this lack of governmental oversight to grossly overcharge the farmers for not only transporting their grain, but also storing it (4). The government also imposed high tariffs on farm equipment from overseas, the foreign equipment was not only better quality than the equipment sold in the US, but also less expensive. Finally, because taxes were based on property rather than income, farmers had to pay more than their fair share. All of these problems had roots in the fact that the farmers did not have much clout. Railways and large companies tended to work hand in hand with many politicians. Railways would be angry if they were forced to charge less, companies were against lowering the Tariff as it would mean they would either have to lower their prices or make a better product, and anyone who was wealthy would be against changing how taxes were done. Each of these groups individually had a bigger voice than the farmers and would continue to get their way for some time, even after the farmers became organized and began to be
heard. Viewing these problems from the 21st century, it is difficult to imagine how one would go about fixing them. Being cut off, miles from your nearest neighbor and with no one in power who was interested in helping. Just keeping your head down and getting on with your work likely seemed like the only option. If it were not for men like Oliver Kelly and organizations like the Grange, who brought the farmers together and gave them a voice, their plight would have gone on for much longer.
From the expanding of railroads country wide, to limiting laws on the goods farmers sold and transportation of the goods,to starvation of the economy, agriculture began to take its own shape from 1865 through to 1900 in the United States.
After the civil war, America found itself with a high production rate, resulting in overproduction and falling of prices, as well as an increase on economic stress and the beginning of panic and prosperity cycles. The wars demand for products had called for a more efficient production system; therefore new machinery had come into place. New tools, such as the reaper, shown in document D, the wheat harvest of 1880, were introduced and facilitated production for farmers, making overproduction more probable. Variation on prices than begun to occur as shown in document A, Agriculture prices in 1865-1900, where a greater amount of goods became available for a more convenient price. This had farmers in distress, for they were losing more money than they were making.
The farmers of the late 1800s had many reasons for being dissatisfied with their situation. Unfair railroad practices, such as rebates and drawbacks, hurt them severely. Even common issues of shortage of money, drought, and mortgages were all issues that hurt farmers economically. The farmers of the period, though, used these issues to change the shape of American politics.
The Roaring Twenties approached and the citizens in Colorado were facing rough times. In 1920, many people such as farm owners, manufacturers, and even miners were having a hard time making a living due to an economic downfall. The farmers especially, where facing the toughest of times. The price of various farm-grown goods like wheat, sugar beets, and even cattle was dropping because their goods were no longer needed by the public. Wheat had dropped in price from $2.02 in 1918 to $0.76 by the time 1921 came around. Sadly, the land that they were using to grow wheat became dry and many farmers had to learn to grow through “dryland farming” which became very popular in the eastern plains from 1910 to 1930 (Hard Times: 1920 - 1940). Apple trees began to die due to the lack of desire for apples, poor land, and decreased prices. Over the course of World War I, the prices of farm goods began to increase slowly. Farmers were not the only one facing this economic hardship while others in big cities were enjoying the Roaring Twenties.
American farmers found themselves facing hard times after the Civil War. In the West, the railroad had opened up enormous opportunities. Farmers were now able to cultivate land that had previously been to far from the Eastern markets to make a profit. However, that opportunity came at a price. The farmers increasing dependence on the railroads and other commercial interests made them an easy target for exploitative business practices.
Farmer’s had difficulties making a living because the rates of being a farmer was high. “Nothing has done more to injure the western region than these freight rates.” (Quoted from Document F) The high rates of being a farmer made it very difficult to make payments on the lands. Some farmers couldn’t even sell their produce for a reasonable profit. They worked long, hard hours and the government wasn’t on their side about paying them a decent income. Along with farm prices failing, railroad prices were increasing. Railroads were important very to farmers because they took farmers out to their lands, carried their produce to markets, and brought them the manufactured goods that they needed. Many farm settlements were made around railroads just because of this reason. Railroad managers were forced to charge very high rates and because of it, farmers would have to pay more money to use railroads.
In 1919, farmers from thirty states, including Missouri, saw a need. They gathered in Chicago and formed the American Farm Bureau Federation. In 1919, they had one goal, they wanted to speak for themselves with the help of their own national organization. Since 1919, Farm Bureau has operated by a philosophy that states: “analyze the problem of farmers and develop a plan of action for these problems” (Missouri). In the past 94 years, the A...
High prices forced farmers to concentrate on one crop. The large-scale farmers bought expensive machines, increasing their crop yield. This caused the smaller farmers to be left behind. The small farmers could no longer compete and were forced give up their farms and look for jobs in the cities. The smaller farmers who stayed blamed their troubles on banks and railroads. In the 1890’s western and southern farmers came together to make up the political party called the Populist Party. Their plan was to take control of the White House; then they could solve all their problems.
Farmers everywhere in the United States during the late nineteenth century had valid reasons to complaint against the economy because the farmers were constantly being taken advantage of by the railroad companies and banks. All farmers faced similar problems and for one thing, farmers were starting to become a minority within the American society. In the late nineteenth century, industrialization was in the spotlight creating big businesses and capitals. The success of industrialization put agriculture and farmers on the down low, allowing the corporations to overtake the farmers. Since the government itself; such as the Republican Party was also pro-business during this time, they could have cared less about the farmers.
The nature of the Southern Plains soils and the periodic influence of drought could not be changed, but the technological abuse of the land could have been stopped. This is not to say that mechanized agriculture irreparably damaged the land-it did not. New and improved implements such as tractors, one-way disk plows, grain drills, and combines reduced plowing, planting, and harvesting costs and increased agricultural productivity. Increased productivity caused prices to fall, and farmers compensated by breaking more sod for wheat. At the same time, farmers gave little thought to using their new technology in ways to conserve the
The country at the time was in the deepest and soon to be longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world and this caused years of over-cultivation of wheat, because “during the laissez-faire, expansionist 1920’s the plains were extensively and put to wheat - turned into highly mechanized factory farms that produced highly unprecedented harvests” (Worster 12). ¬The farmer’s actions were prompted by the economic decline America was facing. With the economy in a recession, farmers were looking for a way to make a living and in 1930 wheat crop were becoming very popular. In 1931 the wheat crop was considered a bumper crop with over twelve million bushels of wheat. Wheat was emerging all over the plains. The wheat supply forced the price down from sixty-eight cents/bushel in July 1930 to twenty-five cents/bushel in July 1931. Many farmers went broke and others abandoned their fields, but most decided to stay despite the unfavorable
After the devastation left from the Civil War, many field owners looked for new ways to replace their former slaves with field hands for farming and production use. From this need for new field hands came sharecroppers, a “response to the destitution and disorganized” agricultural results of the Civil War (Wilson 29). Sharecropping is the working of a piece of land by a tenant in exchange for a portion of the crops that they bring in for their landowners. These farmhands provided their labor, while the landowners provided living accommodations for the worker and his family, along with tools, seeds, fertilizers, and a portion of the crops that they had harvested that season. A sharecropper had “no entitlement to the land that he cultivated,” and was forced “to work under any conditions” that his landowner enforced (Wilson 798). Many landowners viewed sharecropping as a way to elude the now barred possession of slaves while still maintaining field hands for labor in an inexpensive and ample manner. The landowners watched over the sharecroppers and their every move diligently, with harsh supervision, and pressed the sharecroppers to their limits, both mentally and physically. Not only were the sharecroppers just given an average of one-fourth of their harvest, they had “one of the most inadequate incomes in the United States, rarely surpassing more than a few hundred dollars” annually (Wilson 30). Under such trying conditions, it is not hard to see why the sharecroppers struggled to maintain a healthy and happy life, if that could even be achieved. Due to substandard conditions concerning sharecropper’s clothing, insufficient food supplies, and hazardous health issues, sharecroppers competed on the daily basis to stay alive on what little their landowners had to offer them.
The period between 1880 and 1900 was a boom time for American Politics. The country was finally free of the threat of war, and many of its citizens were living comfortably. However, as these two decades went by, the American farmer found it harder and harder to live comfortably. Crops such as cotton and wheat, once the sustenance of the agriculture industry, were selling at prices so low that it was nearly impossible for farmers to make a profit off them. Furthermore, improvement in transportation allowed foreign competition to materialize, making it harder for American farmers to dispose of surplus crop. Mother Nature was also showing no mercy with grasshoppers, floods, and major droughts that led to a downward spiral of business that devastated many of the nation’s farmers. As a result of the agricultural depression, numerous farms groups, most notably the Populist Party, arose to fight what the farmers saw as the reasons for the decline in agriculture. During the final twenty years of the nineteenth century, many farmers in the United States saw monopolies and trusts, railroads, and money shortages and the loss in value of silver as threats to their way of life, all of which could be recognized as valid complaints.
Most of the reasons concerning agrarian discontent in the late nineteenth century stem from supposed threats posed by monopolies and trusts, railroads, money shortages and the demonetization of silver, though in many cases their complaints were not valid. The American farmer at this time already had his fair share of problems, perhaps even perceived as unfair in regards to the success industrialized businessmen were experiencing. Nevertheless, crops such as cotton and wheat, which were once the staples of an agricultural society, were selling at such low prices that it was nearly impossible for farmers to make a profit off them, especially since some had invested a great deal of money in modern equipment that would allow them to produce twice as many goods. Furthermore, improvements in transportation allowed foreign competition to emerge, making it harder for American Farmers to not only dispose of surplus crop, but to transport crops period. Finally, years of drought in the Midwest and the degeneration of business in the 1890's devastated many of the nation's farmers, and as a result of this agricultural depression' many farm groups, most notably the Populist Party, arose to fight what farmers saw as the reasons for the decline of agriculture.
Without farmers, there would be no food for us to consume. Big business picked up on this right away and began to control the farmers profits and products. When farmers buy their land, they take out a loan in order to pay for their land and farm house and for the livestock, crops, and machinery that are involved in the farming process. Today, the loans are paid off through contracts with big business corporations. Since big business has such a hold over the farmers, they take advantage of this and capitalize on their crops, commodities, and profits.