Agriculture was the most important economic activity in America from the founding of Virginia in 1607 to about 1890. Although farming declined rapidly in relative economic importance in the twentieth century, U.S. agriculture continued to be the most efficient and productive in the world. Its success rested on abundant fertile soil, a moderate climate, the ease of private land ownership, growing markets for farm produce at home and abroad, and the application of science and technology to farm operations.
The first settlers, finding that European agriculture could not easily be transferred to the new environment, adopted the Indian practices of raising corn, squash, tobacco, and other crops. From the beginning corn, grown in all the colonies, was the leading food crop. Tobacco, which was exported to earn foreign exchange, was raised mostly in Virginia and Maryland.
In New England, farmers on small acreages raised corn, oats, and rye, vegetables and fruits, and livestock, especially cattle and sheep. In the central colonies of New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey wheat was the major crop. Farmers there were also heavy producers of livestock and animal products, as well as fruit and vegetables. Most farmers in early America were largely self-sufficient, producing enough for their family needs, but also some surplus for sale.
Agriculture from Maryland, and southward, was more specialized and commercialized than in the North. Corn was the main grain and food crop, but tobacco, rice, and indigo were the principal export crops. The plantation system was developed in connection with the production of tobacco and rice, with black slaves providing much of the labor by the late seventeenth century. Cotton was grown for home use in the late eighteenth century, but because it was difficult to extract the seeds it did not become an important commercial crop until after the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1793. Farmers then used crude hand tools made of wood, sometimes with iron parts. Plows too might have an iron facing on the cutting edge. Planting, weeding, and harvesting were done by hand labor.
Significant changes in farming began to occur at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Between the American Revolution and the Civil War, tens of thousands of farmers surged westward to settle on the rich lands of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. [1]The...
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... S. Maxwell
29 November 2004
Thesis Statement: In early America, agriculture was a significant part of society and America’s early development.
1) Introduction: This paper will explain how America’s agriculture was developed and what roles were played to establish settlement.
2) Literature Overview: The resources use to complete the assign were Kevin Reilly, Women and the Origins of Patriarchy: Gathering, Agricultural, and Urban Societies; Elise Boulding, Women and the Agricultural Revolution, Gilbert C. Fite, American Farmers, The New Minority, John T Schelbecker, Whereby We Thrive: A History Of American Farming, Sandra Johnson, and a unknown web source. They describe in their own way how the American agriculture was established.
3) The Role of Agriculture in Early America, 1790-1824.
WORKS CITED
Boulding, Elise, 2004. Women and the Agricultural Revolution. New York.
Fite, Gilbert C, 1981. American Farmers, The New Minority. University of South
Carolina.
Johnson, Sandra, 2004. http://sandrajohnson.org/slavery_histiry.html/
Schlebecker, John T, 1975. Whereby We Thrive: A History of American Farming.
http://www.muslimedia.com/archives/features99/slavery.htm
Pre-industrial labor mostly consisted of farming and agriculture involving the entire family. In 1823, 97 percent of all Americans still lived in farms therefore the rural population and workforce was much larger than the urban population and workforce. The production and growing of food was used by the...
He believe that the each side should be expressed individually. His experiment suppose this claim because all though out this story. Jekyll was his good side while Hyde was his bad. When he was Hyde he harmed so many people and turned back into good like nothing ever happened. The duality of human nature is when you have two differences in the way you think, feel and act. Which connects back to Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud: superego and good vs. evil. I would compare Jekyll and Hyde to the makings of chocolate milk. When you start off you have a bright white cup of milk. After, adding the chocolate syrup it turn darks. After becoming chocolate like it could no longer be that bright white cup of milk again. Just like Jekyll and Hyde: once Jekyll drunk his experiment he turned into Hyde. Although he turned back to himself, both sides of him was gone: he was no longer himself (Stevenson, 1986/2004, p.65). This chapter show the true meaning of good vs.
With the economic system, the south had a very hard time producing their main source “cotton and tobacco”. “Cotton became commercially significant in the 1790’s after the invention of a new cotton gin by Eli Whitney. (PG 314)” Let alone, if they had a hard time producing goods, the gains would be extremely unprofitable. While in the North, “In 1837, John Deere patented a strong, smooth steel plow that sliced through prairie soil so cleanly that farmers called it the “singing plow.” (PG 281).” Deere’s company became the leading source to saving time and energy for farming as it breaks much more ground to plant more crops. As well as mechanical reapers, which then could harvest twelve acres a day can double the corn and wheat. The North was becoming more advanced by the second. Many moved in the cities where they would work in factories, which contributed to the nation’s economic growth because factory workers actually produced twice as much of labor as agricultural workers. Steam engines would be a source of energy and while coal was cutting prices in half actually created more factories, railroads for transportation, and ships which also gave a rise in agricultural productivity.
Early English settlers in the lower Chesapeake Bay region learned to cultivate tobacco from the Native Americans and it would prove to have profound influence in the development of Chesapeake society and the colonies of Virginia and Maryland as a whole. Between 1627 and 1669, annual tobacco exports climbed from 250,000 pounds to more than 15 million pounds. (p39. The American Journey). The Chesapeake region became the New World’s largest producer of tobacco. Since tobacco was a labour intensive crop to cultivate, the planters sought indentured servants from England as a source of cheap labour. However many servants died in alarming numbers from disease as a result from the supply of indentured servants declined, and larger planters who were wealthy managed to buy slaves. Slave population increased rapidly from 1,708 in 1660 to 189,000 in 1760. (Smith, Billy G., and Nash. Encyclopedia of American History).
...ne farmer in the U.S. (“Historical” 76).With a 25 ft self propelled combine, a few trucks, a tractor, a 30 ft drill, and a 35 ft sweep disk it took 3hrs of labor to make 1000 bushels, 3 acres, of wheat. To produce 100 bush of corn , 1 ⅛ acres with a 12 ft combine, a few trucks, a tractor, a 20ft sprayer, a planter, a 20 ft tandem disk, and a 5-btm plow it took 2 ¾ hours of labor in 1987 (“Historical” 78). By 1990 100 people were taken care of by one farmer in the U.S. (“Historical” 80). More and more information technology and precision techniques were being used in agriculture production in the 1990s (“Historical” 81). In 1994 satellite technology was introduced and used on farms more and more. Also the use of low-tillage techniques kept rising (“Historical” 82). In 1997 the first crops that were resistant to weeds and insects was introduced (“Historical” 83).
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.
George Washington once stated, “Agriculture is the most healthful, most useful, and most noble employment of man.” Agriculture has always been one of the most, if not the most, depended on industry for humans to survive. For over 12,000 years, farming practices have been used as a reliable food source. Farming has been practiced almost everywhere in the world, and has created a food source from the domestication of plants, such as rice, corn, and soybeans as well as animals, such as cattle, hogs, sheep, and poultry ("The Development of Agriculture."). After the American Civil War and post-reconstruction, the 2nd Industrial Revolution created many agricultural developments, and advancements, including the first gas-powered tractor, the redesigned
In the novel, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the author, Robert Louis Stevenson, uses the characters in the book to talk about the two sides of the human nature. He says that everyone has two different sides; a good side and an evil side. Some people may accept the fact that they have both, but others try to convince themselves that they do not.
Self-Esteem. Self-esteem is the way individual perceives, symbolized and accept ourselves as worth beings in this world (Oregon Resiliency Project, 2003). Everyone must have the self-esteem in order to perform in the daily routine but the differences are the level of self-esteem inside individuals. The level of self-esteem will reflect how individual performs in a daily task and life. Self-esteem is popular among the psychology field of research and still being study by many researchers. Throughout of human life span, highs self-esteem promotes the development of human potential entirely (Habibollah et al., 2009).
Even through the economic crisis of the 1890s, Americans held to their beliefs of maintaining a free market, free from governmental influence in the agricultural fields. Farm policy remained nonexistent for 40 more years, until Herbert Hoover came into office in 1928, bringing with him heavy support for federal agricultural intervention. In 1929 he signed legislation to create the Federal Farm Board, a program intended to stabilize the income of farmers and equalize it to that of other professions—no doubt, this was in theory a logical idea, but this program paved the way for nonsensical programs to rule the agricultural sector for, thus far, the rest of our nation’s history. The Farm Board introduced
Early on in the story, the reader is introduced to Jekyll and Hyde. They are set up to be opposites in terms of personality. Mr. Enfield says, “‘I see you feel as I do. Yes it’s a bad story. For my man was a fellow that nobody could have to do with, a really damnable man; and the person that drew the cheque is the very pink of the proprieties’” (Stevenson 10). Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are well developed characters because they are set up from the very beginning of the novel to be diametric opposites. Jekyll admits in his letter that had both sides of good and evil within himself as Dr. Jekyll. He states, “both sides of me were in dead earnest; I was no more myself when I laid aside restraint and plunged in shame, than when I laboured, in the eye of day, at the furtherance of knowledge or the relief of sorrow and suffering” (48). Dr. Jekyll has the two opposite personalities of good and evil clash within himself. It shows his two sides, and the fact that they both existed at the same time. Sometimes evil would overcome him, and he would turn into Hyde. This complexity reveals that humans experience something similar when different personalities clash. Stevenson is able to use vitality in complex characters to reveal the human condition of mankind’s dual
Good and evil are in every man, but most keep it hidden. Good and evil are still around today. From Victorian times to twenty-first century, evil is still coming out. In Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, physical descriptions are used to reflect good and evil in Jekyll and Hyde.
Logsdon, Gene. At Nature's Pace: Farming and the American Dream. New York: Pantheon Books, 1994.
Good and Evil in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
It is to be noted that farmers in England are among the most productive farmers in the world. The new methods of farming brought mass production in the early 18th century, leading to the Agricultural revolution. “In the early eighteenth century, Britain exported wheat, rising from 49,000 quarters in 1700 to a massive peak of 950,000 quarters in 1750”. The whole benefit of the Agricultural revolution was shared among aristocratic landholders. They were the only top authorities, as the English throne was already overthrown by the aristocratic class in 1688 during the Glorious Revolution.... ...