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A brief History of The Farming
Frontier
According to Encyclopedia Americana,
although lacking physical definition, the
American frontier could be described as
a lifestyle in which westward moving
settlers separated from the Old World in
almost all aspects of life.
Geographically, the frontier was in the
backwoods valleys, away from the
coastal civilizations, such as Boston or
Baltimore. Culturally, although the
earliest colonists attempted to reestablish European culture in the United
States, western backwoodsmen began to
deviate from such culture and nurtured
distinctive and unique social
characteristics that would later mark the
American frontiersmen. American
frontiersmen were of three essential
characters. First, he had given up on
covenant transportation and expected
great distance from advanced
civilizations. Second, he advanced
across an intensively wooded land to the
Western shoulder of Mississippi bottoms
and then across semiarid plains. Last, he
was constricted to an agricultural
economy.1
Farming could be considered an
indispensable facet of the American
frontier because it required the removal
of heavy forest or prairies west of the
Mississippi, which laid the foundation
for the development of other frontiers,
such as railroad and cattle. Furthermore,
farming provided food products at a
lowing price for the already
economically struggling frontiersmen
because the cost of transportation was
1 Encyclopedia Americana, Grolier Incorporated reduced. Transportation of good was a
significant problem of the Frontier as
transported goods were rarely fresh nor
cheap. Fortunately, the Western soil was
fertile and the temperature conducive to
long growing season leading to the a
booming growth in the American
agricultural production, including corn,
grains, hemp, flax, fruits, tobacco, and
cotton. The farms were so successful
that it not only sufficient supplied for the
entire Western region but also had the
Ohio and Mississippi rivers and their
tributaries floated thousands of flat and
keel boats loaded with Western produce
everyday. Due to the high demands,
everybody on the frontier farm worked
long hours to perform the labors
necessary to produce crops, another
remarkable trait of frontiersmen.
A flatboat hauling cargo down the Mississippi
river drawing, early 1800s
Such agricultural and economical
success could never been achieved
without the farming frontier, dated back
to 1870 to 1890. During the three
decades, millions of farmers rushed
westward into the Great Plains, a region
with forbidding feats according to those
who had travelled there. The farmers
occupied the bleak land of Kansas and
Nebraska, the level grasslands of
Dakota, and the rolling foothills of
Wyoming and Montana. The influx of
population into the West was so severe
that the farmers even pushed back the
2 Indians and settled in Oklahoma. Over
500 millions acres of barren land were
occupied and cultivated between 1870
and 1890.
So why would these men risk their
future and even their lives to move and
settle in the hostile West? The answer is
the desire for excitement, success, and
wealth propelled into the ominous
unknown. During the wane of the
nineteenth century, the Mississippi
Valley states were becoming
overcrowded due to the exponentially
growing population that inflation and
lack of opportunity were undermining
the survival of the population. As a
result, men resorted to tedious banal
labors, such as factory work, to earn
minimum wages that could barely
support the family. Knowing that the
frontier was open and yielded endless
opportunities, the men jumped at the
chance immediately bring along their
families. However, towards the end of
the Westward Movement, the settlers
suffered hard times because of natural
hazards, social problems, and
economical instability. For example,
long-term farming caused soil depletion,
previously unknown to the Americans
that could destroy hundreds of
prosperous farmlands causing poverty
and famine.
Furthermore, European immigrants
drifted westwards seeking for more
opportunities and less oppression. Irish
immigrants, in particular, moved across
the Appalachians with the development
and construction of the railroad system
and stayed to till the soil. Immigrants
from Canada immigrated south into the
West because of the severe inflation in
the Canadian currency, two Canadian
dollars to one US dollar, during the
period. However, the most significant
movement was of the settlers from
Germany. Germans who occupied the
Upper Mississippi Valley region
continued to migrate Westward into
Kansas, Nebraska, Dakota, Minnesota,
and Texas. Also, the “American Fever”
attracted over 100 thousands peasants
from the Scandinavian region, where
instability and poverty haunted the
people. The rugged climate served as an
additional “pull” force to the sturdy
European farmers who was used to such
climate back in Europe.
A farming poster distributed by Burlington &
Missouri River R.R.Co., late 1800s
Both natives and foreigners who
peopled the Great Plains were often
under influence of mass advertising
campaign that even managed to alter the
world migrations. Steamship companies,
for example, invested heavily in
European newspaper and
advertisements, distributed their posters
to half the Continent, and provided free
3 transportation for immigrants wishing to
revisit the old country providing they
urged others to return. Their ultimate
goal was to reap a harvest of passenger
fares. Western states hired agents
stationed at immigration bureaus in the
East and Europe to spread propaganda
and urged farmers to migrate to ’the land
of plenty’. According to the immigration
bureaus, even the Garden of Eden
seemed unattractive.
Effective as the appeals were, the
companies succeed only because
Western farming promised superfluous
profits. Every frontiersman knew that the
steadily expanding markets awaited his
produce. US population increased
exponentially in the prosperous postwar
era due to natural growth and the influx
of 15 million immigrants. The larger the
population, the higher the demands for
basic necessities such as food and living
space. Especially coupled with
industrialization, non-food producing
city dwellers multiplied faster than the
population as a whole on a daily basis.
Two and half acres of farm and ten acres
of pasture were required to provide
meat, egg, poultry, and grain consumed
by each yearly. Consumption that high
guaranteed a steady domestic market for
every produce the farmers grew.
Any surpluses were shipped abroad. For
instance, English consumption of
American wheat increased since the
1870s and reached a zenith of 150
million bushels in 1880, which were sold
for nearly 200 million dollars. Pioneers
believed that, given the trend and
positive prospect, the demand would
keep prices high forever if not even
higher. In proof they pointed to the price
of American wheat between 1866 and
1881 when it rarely dropped to below a
dollar a bushel. They explained that the
phenomenon meant prosperity for the
producer. With profits virtually assured,
farmers expanded carelessly with only
profits in mind.
Moreover, scientists, industrialists, and
entrepreneurs were creating new markets
for the frontiersmen. Their greatest
achievement as the invention and
technological improvement they made to
the primitive farming tools, which
allowed the farmers to further expand
into the once hostile and barren land. For
example, an improved milling process
extended the wheat frontier into the
Great Plains. However, the region was
later proven inhabitable for the soft
winter wheat grown by the eastern
farmers. The cold winters of the northern
Plains killed the seed before it sprouted,
while wide seasonable variations of heat
and cold in Kansas or Nebraska
destroyed the tender kernel. Through
means of scientific method and
technological advances, trials and error
soon demonstrated that the hard spring
variety grown in northern Europe thrived
in the Minnesota-Dakota country, while
the hard-kernels “Turkey Red” wheat
imported from the Crimea thrived in the
Kansas-Nebraska region. This
achievement exemplified the spirit of the
farming frontier: the cycle of failure
followed by handwork and
advancement. 2
2 Westward Expansion, Ray Allen Billington 4 The Environment of The Farming Frontier
LOCATION
Unlike that of railroad or mining,
farming frontier did not settle on specific
regions but instead farms were scattered
within the Great Plains, spanning
Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska,
New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma,
South Dakota, Wyoming, and Texas.
However, despite the ubiquity and
uniformity of farms on the Great Plains,
farms from different regions yield
different produces given the disparate
weather and soil condition within the
Great Plains. For example, Corn Belt, a
region where corn farmers thrived and
produced maize in massive amount, was
solely exclusive to the states above the
Mason-Dixon line. Cotton Belt, on the
other hand, exclusive to the states below
the Mason-Dixon line, produces was the
largest global cotton producer and
exporter during the frontier era.3
Although the farming frontier flourished
and its market growing at an exponential
rate, farming success was not facile and
glorious, as it appeared to be on a
superficial level, judging from its
achievement. Because of the fickle and
hostile environment on the Great Plains,
many factors essential to farming were
severely undermined. As a result, famers
constantly failed to grow healthy
products and had to overcome obstacles
and challenges Mother Nature threw at
them.
HOUSING
Because most territories on the Great
3 Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com Plains remained primitive, undeveloped,
and uncultivated, many farmers
struggled to find or establish dwellings
on their lands. Because of the high
transportation coast of material, such as
timber and rock, enforced by the railroad
companies, farmers had no choice but to
utilize local elements to construct
dwellings sturdy to withstand the local
weather and local fauna. Early pioneers
usually built a dugout by scooping a hole
in the side of a hill. The front was then
blocked a wall of cut sod, and the top
was covered with poles that supported
layers of prairie grass and dirt. Although
the crude havens would eventually be
washed away by rains and were always
filthy, they could house families for
months before giving away.
A Sod House built on the Frontier photograph,
early 1800s
Soon after, however, a more permanent
and hardy structure, sod house, replaced
the flimsy dwellings. The farmers piled
sod scavenged from thickly rooted
prairie grass into wells supported with
bricks laid into the joints and around the
windows and doors. If lumber was
available the farmer would built a farm
roof, but when without it, he would used
layers of prairie grass toped by a layer of
sod to cover his house. The sod house
remained warm in winter and cold in
summer, stayed sturdy under piercing
wind, and was immune to deadly prairie
fires. Yet, when it rained, sod houses
5 were often flooded with water for around
three days before drying. During the
flood, the mud floors were too swampy
to walk upon and wives could cook only
with an umbrella held over the stove.
WATER
Along with housings, the search for
water was just as difficult. Farmers who
were lucky enough to live next to a
stream hauled barrels of water to his
enough. The majority of the farming
frontiersmen, however, lived on barren
lands and depended on rainwater
collected in swamp buffalo wallows or
in dug cisterns. To make matter worse,
the ground water, swarmed with insects
and parasites, was the source of “prairie
fever”—or typhoid—that ravaged the
Plain farmers. One alternative to acquire
water was to dig a well by hand. Before
the introduction of water-drilling
machineries at the 1880s, farmers
sometimes had to extend downward two
or three hundred feet before the water
was reached. The days of arduous and
tenuous work with hand and shovel that
went into finding water exemplified the
difficulties of life on the Plains.
FUEL
Fuel, like water, was a resource
challenging to acquire yet needed on a
daily basis. A farmer that dwelled with a
fifty miles of a stream would haul wood
that distance just for enough fuel to last
for his family. Others lived on by using
dried buffalo excrement that was
gathered and piled in huts for winter use.
As the buffalo population dwindled,
buffalo “chips” became so rare that
farmers usually a bag to salvage dung
found along their way. Cow manure was
also utilized as fuel near the cattle trials.
Farmers would encourage drovers to rest
his herd nearby so as to collect the
several hundred pounds of fuel left
behind. Some farmers, desperate for
fuel, even burned the woody stalks of
sunflowers planted to compensate the
lack of wood or dung. However, none
burnt as well as coal brought into the
Great Plains later by the railroad
companies.
WEATHER
Not only did the absence of resource
burdened and distressed the farming
frontier but also did the hostile weather
conditions. Unlike illustrated in
storybooks where seasons brought joy to
people, every season on the Great Plains
brought new hardships to the farmers. In
the spring, the Plains were flooded with
the sudden influx of runoff of winter
snow into the streams. The floods also
swelled into torrents that swept houses
and livestock in its way. In the summer,
endless heat waves territories the Plains,
searing wind coupled with intense heat
brought about drought that withered
crops, cracked the parched soil, and even
sparked wile prairie fire. Temperature,
reaching 110-degree mark for weeks at
time, scorched countryside, dried up the
streams, mercilessly killed livestock.
Farmers, face chalk-white with dried
perspiration, struggled to complete their
tasks became a common scene on the
Plains. In the winter, storms swept
across the open plain; ice, dust, and
snow particles were whipped along the
raging wind with such tremendous force
that the particles found ways into the
sturdiest dwellings. Farmers would wake
up covered by inched of snow and find
their food and livestock frozen. Often
the farmers would relocate the livestock
into the crowded sod house to stay
warm.
6 PESTS
Even temperate weather brought no
relief to the farmers because habitable
weather foreboded a worse plague—a
grasshopper invasion. The grasshoppers
flew in as a mile-wide cloud that
blocked out the entire sky without any
warning. They, burying the entire
countryside under several inches of
living mass, devoured anything
consumable: cornstalks, young grain,
vegetables under the ground, leaves and
barks from trees, sweaty wood from
plow handles or pitchforks, weather
lumber on the house walls, mosquitos,
clothes, leaving nothing behind. It soon
became impossible to live in the
desolation the grasshoppers left behind.
Resigned farmers took everything that
was left and headed east, with signs on
their wagons that read, “From Kansas,
where it rains grasshoppers, fire and
destruction.” Grasshopper invasion
became so severely damaging to the
farming community that no farmers felt
safe until the autumn wind signaled the
end of summer.
it came across. Farmers would lose their
lives in conflagrations hoping that the
fire would skip their houses. Soon,
farmers began to keep a circle of land
around their homes burnt over as
protection. They even carried matched to
start backfires that could potentially
eliminate the wild fire. Even with these
preventions, property loss and
discomfort were severely detrimental to
the farming frontier.4
Prairie fires in the Great West in 1800s painting, 1952 A cartoon in response to the Grasshopper
Invasion in Kansas, 1874
FIRE
As if the environment was not harsh
enough, a new threat emerged. Any
spark ignited on the tinder-dry grass
would set the entire prairie on fire,
sending the inferno across miles of
countryside, ameliorating anything that
4 Westward Expansion, Ray Allen Billington 7 Significant Figures on The Farming Frontier JOHN DEERE
John Deere was born in Rutland,
Vermont, on February 7, 1804. Through
his childhood, Deere attended the
common schools of Vermont given the
meager income of the family. By 17, he
apprenticed himself and learned the
trade of blacksmithing. In 1836, in the
face of business depressions in Vermont,
Deere traveled to Grand Detour, Illinois
to seek changes and opportunities.
Realizing a heavy demand for sturdy
iron plows that could accommodate the
sticky, heavy prairie soil from the
farming frontier community, Deere
designed a highly polished and well
designed blade that cut furrows without
causing inconvenience to the farmers.
Using a saw blade, he crafted a steelblade plow prototype that instantly
became popular among the farmers who
were frustrated with the cast-iron plows
they brought from the east. By 1849,
Deere and his company was selling two
thousands plows annually.
John Deere portrait, Unknown
Despite his initial success, Deere
constantly improved and innovated upon
his original steel plow design and
created new models constantly. In 1875,
he introduced the Gilpin Sulky plow, a
riding plow, onto the market, and took
over the majority of the plow markets. In
the mid-1880s he entered and dominated
another market by introducing the
company’s first three-wheeled plow, the
New Deal gang plows. Although Deere
mostly focused on producing various
plows in his entire life at the company,
his contribution to the farming
community was immense, especially to
that of Illinois. His innovations on plows
made the agriculture in Illinois, even
America, the most dynamic in history,
allowing more options for both the
farmers and the consumers. Deere also
greatly reduced the price of crops by
drastically reducing the manual labors
involved in farming businesses.5
JEROME INCREASE CASE
Jerome Increase Case was born in
Williamstown, New York, on December
11, 1819. Raise in a family that sold
primitive “ground-hog” machines that
helped the separation of grains, Case
was greatly influenced and started a
small business threshing his neighbors'
crops with a horse powered device he
created. Initially, Case imported his
threshers from England on credit to
jumpstart his business; however, he
decided to work on improving the crude
threshers. He first introduced his
improvised thresher in 1843 but it failed
to efficiently separate the crops during
harvest. It was not until 1844, when his
second model, a fully operational
threshing machine, could separate crops
faster than anything farmers had ever
seen. Needless to say, like Deere’s
plows, Cases’ threshers became an
5 Our Past Leaders, www.deere.com 8 instant hit on the frontier.
Jerome Increase Case portrait, 1918
Case later relocated his company, J. I.
Case Company, to Racine, Wisconsin in
1847. During the panic of 1857, Racine
experienced harsh economic conditions
where farmers could no longer pay their
debts and would often walk away from
their debts to enlist to the army. Even
with his company being affected by the
panic, Case continued financing
machines with high interest rates and
accepted animals, supplies, and lands
instead of cash. The shortage of labor
and increased demand for food onset by
the Civil War resulted in a exponentially
growing business in the farming
community, especially in Racine, where
most labors were handled by machines
manufactured by Case.6
THE GRANGE
The Grange was a fraternal organization
by the name of the Order of Patrons and
Husbandry that yielded a special interest
in agriculture. It was first founded in
1867, in Washington, D.C., by Oliver
Judson Kelly and his associates as the
first general farm organization in the
United States. Kelly aimed to alleviate
6 The Company of Jerome Increase Case, www.racinehistory.com isolation, apathy, and ignorance among
the farming communities through
infusing the Grange with educational
and social opportunities. The Grange,
within its community-service objectives,
also assisted the farmers economically
by offering insurance and credit union
programs. The Grange played a
significant role in the 1870’s when
conflicts arose between the farming
frontiersmen and railroad companies.
Railroad companies united and increased
the transportation costs simultaneously,
knowing that the only way for the
farmers to reach their customers was
through the railroad. As a result, farmers
sought to either regulate the railroad
companies’ policies and actions or
eliminate middlemen, the railroad
companies, when selling their produces
to the general public.
Grange Hall in Maine postcard, 1910
In 1876, when the Grange finally gained
full momentum with a peak of strength
of 850,000 members, it established
farmer-owned stores, grain elevators,
insurance companies, and other
enterprises. The entire operations,
completely independent from the
railroad companies, remained mutually
exclusive to the farmers where agents
directly deal with manufacturers of
farming equipment and engaged in
cooperative selling. The Grange
catalyzed the enactment of the “Granger
9 laws”, giving states the power to
regulate railroad and elevator chargers.
At its zenith, the Grange even assaulted,
first time in the United States history, the
preexistent concept of laissez-faire in
Munn v. Illinois (1877). In Munn v.
Illinois, Chief Justice declared the rights
Illinois yielded to regulate elevator
companies constitutional, stating, “When
property is affected with a public
interest, it ceases to be juries private
only.”
THE POPULIST PARTY
The Populist party, officially known as
the People’s party, was a political party
that flourished after the Civil War,
during a long period of agricultural
unrest, struggle, and poverty within the
farming frontier community. Soon after
the Civil War, in 1865, American
farmers, especially those on the frontier,
suffered from a persistent drop in farm
prices. Although the depression was
caused by farming machinery
introductions that led to overproduction
and transportation revolutions that
created competitions both nationally and
internationally, the excessive railroad
charges, high interest rates, and profits
of middlemen became scapegoats the
American farmers focused on.
Consequently, the farmers sough to
create a party, the Populist party,
devoted to the agricultural interests, to
counter the efforts by the financial and
industrial parties to dominate the
agricultural market.
By the late 1880’s and the early 1890’s,
the farmers’ predicament on the Plains
became extremely dire. The farming
frontier had over-expanded into
territories west into Wyoming, Colorado,
and New Mexico where precipitation
was extremely rare. Southern farmers
also toiled hopelessly, watching the
farming prices plummeted like a pricked
balloon. Contrary to modern viewpoint
on overproduction, the farmers believed
increased food production could revive
or even prosper the agricultural market.
Unsurprisingly, the farming prices
continued to drop steadily as farmers
struggled to yield higher production
rates. Although the members of the
Populist party was zealous and
determined on the subject of resolving
the agricultural depression, the party
never gained enough political
momentum to make significant changes
to the farming society and was later
dissolved in 1908.7
Populist Party at Columbus, Nebraska
photograph, 1890
7 Encyclopedia Americana, Grolier Incorporated 10 Machineries Use on The Farming
Frontier
THE MCCORMICK REAPER
The McCormick Reaper, invented by
Cyrus H. McCormick in 1831, was the
first-ever practical grain harvesting
machinery ever constructed in the
farming industry. In fact, the reaper was
such a fine piece of machine that every
subsequent successful grain harvester
introduced contained its essential core
design and elements. The McCormick
reaper consisted of a main wheel frame,
from which extended a cutter-bar
platform, with reciprocating knives
attachment,to the opposite end. A
divider, on the opposite end, served
to separate the grains ahead of the
reaper. A reel was also installed in order
to hold the grain by tossing it back upon
the platform. These structures,
incorporated in the McCormick reaper,
became an standard standards and
elements that all later grain harvester
followed. In the spring of 1851,
McCormick even received the honor to
exhibit his reaper at the World’s Fair at
London.8
The McCormick reaper at the presentation in
Virginia photograph, 19th century
8 Agricultural Machinery in the 1800’s, www.machine-­‐history.com THE THRESHING MACHINE
Before the development of the threshing
machine, farmers accomplished the
separation of grain from straw and chaff
by trampling it with their of their
animals’ feet. The farmers then tossed
the pulverized mixture into the air and
the wind or fan blew away the chaff,
leaving the grain behind. The concept of
impact and abrasion was infused into the
invention of the threshing machine. The
simple threshing machine, often referred
to as “ground-hog” machines because of
the similar mechanism, contained a
revolving cylinder with teeth operating
against the stationary bars, allowing
husked grains to fall through the space
between. Despite its primitive design,
the threshing machine was adjustable to
adapt to each type of grain and alleviated
heavy manual labors.
Drawing of a horse-powered thresher, 1881
More complex machinery and gadgets
were later attached to the “ground-hog”
model to yield diverse functions and
higher efficiency. The threshing
machines by the 1850s were capable of
cleaning, recovering, elevating grain,
and removing and stacking straw. Given
the accelerating technological
improvements made in farming
community, the threshing machines
could handle around 5,000 feet of wheat
per minute. Despite operating at such
high speed, the peripheral speed of the
machine, specifically the cylinder, was
regulated so as not to damage the grain
11 but enough to remove the seed at an
optimum rate. At first, the threshing
machine was animal-powered as horses
or mules spun the cylinder trotting in
a circular motion. The power source was
then succeeded by steam machines that
further increased the speed of the
machine.
BARBED WIRE
Barbed wire, a wire fencing set with
bards at regular intervals, was of a
significant invention that symbolized the
westward frontier movement in the
United Sates in the late 19th century.
Because, on the frontier, farmers lacked
protection against untamed cattle that
grazed upon the crops they planted
arduously, and standard fences required
materials such as wood and stone, which
were scarce on the frontier, in 1873,
barbed wire was invented and patented
to resolve the situation. This model,
crafted by Joseph Farwell Glidden, an
Illinois farmer, flourished commercially,
creating a novel industry entirely
dedicate to barbed wire.
Glidden’s patent for barbed wire, 1874
However, since ranchers were unable to
safeguard property improvements or
improved cattle breeds, barbed wires
would cause severe damage or trauma to
the cattle as it accidentally walked into
the wires. As a result, barbed wares
caused animosity between cattlemen and
farm settlers as the injured cattle tore
down the barbed wire fence. Despite
these conflicts, eventually, barbed wire
was accepted as the essential foundation
of the development of the frontier. It
provided the protective boundaries
without which the frontiers of settlement
could not continue to advance. In fact,
barbed wire became so popular, over
400 types of barbed wires were crafted
between 1873 and 1900, yet only a few
types were able to dominate the
industry.9
9 Encyclopedia Americana, Grolier Incorporated 12 The Farming Frontier: A Timeline
10 1790
Ø
Total population: 3,929,214; farmers 90% of labor force
Ø
U.S. area settled extends westward on average of 255 miles; parts of the frontier cross the
Appalachians
1796
Ø
Public Land Act authorizes Federal land sales to the public in minimum 640-acre plots at $2 per
acre of credit.
1803
Ø
Louisiana Purchase
1819
Ø
Jethro Wood patents iron plow with interchangeable parts
Ø
Florida and other land acquired through treaty with Spain
1819-25
Ø
U.S. food canning industry established
1820
Ø
Total population: 9,638,453
Ø
Land Law allows as little as 80 acres of public land for a minimum price of $1.25 an acre; credit
system abolished
1830
Ø
Total population: 12,866,020
Ø
About 250-300 labor-hours required to produce 100 bushels (5 acres) of wheat
Ø
Mississippi River forms the approximate frontier boundary
1830-37
Ø
Land speculation boom
1834
Ø
McCormick reaper patented
10 Growing A Nation: The Story of American Agriculture, www.agclassroom.org 13 1837
Ø
John Deere and Leonard Andrus begin manufacturing steel plows
Ø
Practical threshing machine patented 1840s
Ø
Factory-made agricultural machinery increases farmers' need for cash and encourages commercial
farming
1840
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Total population: 17,069,453; farm population; 9,012,000 (est.); farmers 69% of labor force
1841
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Practical grain drill patented
1842
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First grain elevator, Buffalo, NY
1843
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Sir John Lawes founded the commercial fertilizer industry by developing a process for making
superphosphate
1844
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Practical mowing machine patented
1845-53
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Texas, Oregon, the Mexican cession, and the Gadsden Purchase added to the Union
1847
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Irrigation begun in Utah
1849
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Mixed chemical fertilizers sold commercially
1850’s
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Successful farming on the prairies begins
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California gold rush
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Frontier extends to the Pacific coast
14 1850
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Total population: 23,191,786; farm population; 11,680,000 (est.); farmers 64% of labor force;
Number of farms: 1,449,000; average acres: 203
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About 75-90 labor-hours required to produce 100 bushels (2 ½ acres) of corn 1850-70
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Expanded market for agricultural products spurs adoption of improved technology resulting
increases in farm production
1854
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Self-governing windmill perfected
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Graduation Act reduces price of unsold public lands
1856
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Two-horse straddle-row cultivator patented
1862
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Homestead Act grants 160 acres to settlers who have worked the land 5 years
1862-75
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Change from hand power to horses characterizes the first American agricultural revolution
1865-75
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Gang plows and sulky plows come into use
1866-77
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Cattle boom accelerates settlement of Great Plains; range wars develop between farmers and
ranchers
1868
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Steam tractors are tried out
1874
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Glidden barbed wire patented; fencing of rangeland ends era of unrestricted, open-range grazing
1880
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Total population: 50,155,783; farm population: 22,981,000 (est.); farmers 49% of labor force;
Number of farms: 4,009,000; average acres: 134
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Most humid land already settled; heavy agricultural settlement on the Great Plains begins
1881
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Hybridized corn produced
15 1884-90
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Horse-drawn combine used in Pacific coast wheat areas
1887-97
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Drought reduces settlement on the Great Plains
1888
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The first long haul shipment of a refrigerated freight car was made from California to New York
1890’s
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Increases in land under cultivation and number of immigrants becoming farmers boost agricultural
output
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Agriculture becomes increasingly mechanized and commercialized
1890
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Total population: 62,941,714; farm population: 29,414,000 (est.); farmers 43% of labor force;
Number of farms: 4,565,000; average acres: 136
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40-50 labor-hours required to produce 100 bushels (5 acres) of wheat
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35-40 labor-hours required to produce 100 bushels (2 1/2 acres) of corn
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Census shows that the frontier settlement is over
1932-36
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Drought and dust-bowl conditions develop
16