How did the farms cope during the industrial revolution?

Answer 1

Technological improvements in agriculture led to the industrial revolution. So it first be realized that the premise of the question is partially flawed.

Before the 1790's over 90% of Americans were farm workers. With such a large number of people producing the food it was impossible for an industrial revolution to take place until farming could become more efficient.

In the 1790's the cradle was invented. The cradle is a attachment put on the blade of a scythe that functioned a a large pitch-fork. The cradle allowed a farmer in one motion to be cut a swath of wheat and then throw the cut wheat onto a wagon on into a windrow.

In the 1830's the steel plow was mass produced by McCromick Deere. This allowed grassland to be quickly converted into farm ground. Plowing, at the time, was the best method of killing weeds prior to the planting or after harvest.

In the 1840's mined fertilizer was being used. Scientist had discovered that powdered limestone could increase the fertility of land when applied in certain amounts.

As these advances improved the productivity of farmers and their land more people were able to work in industry and science. As industry and science advanced the further expanded agricultural efficiency by producing more farm machinery.

The building of the railroads in the 1860's opened large and remote swathes of America to the international market. The land from Ohio to Iowa was very productive and could finally be utilized by farmers.

Steam tractors were invented in the early 20'th century but were not in wide use. Steam power was used on the farm however to assist in the threshing and storage of grain.

By the 1930's diesel powered tractor became popular. These tremendously improved the productivity of farmers. The maintenance of horses required a great deal of effort and land. A diesel tractor not only replaced horse but provided much more power.

During the 1930's hybrid corn became popular, further increasing yields. Other grain staples were hybrid shortly after.

During the 1970's and 08's the use of chemicals to kill weeds allowed for a new type of agriculture called no-till. No-till relied on chemicals to kill weeds and thus did not require plowing, which consumed a great deal of time, fuel, and man hours. This advancement greatly increased the efficiency of farmers.

Throughout the 20'th century farm machinery gets bigger and faster which allows a farmer to farm a greater number of acres. The productivity of the land increases so much during this period that the amount of land farmed in the US actually peaks in the 1950's and reaches a bottom of about 2/3 of its peak near 2000. Contributing to this is the dramatic decrease in the amount of grazing land as more beef cattle are raised on feed lots due to the increased ease and productivity of grain farming.

The 1990's saw plant genetics take a giant leap forward with gene splicing. Scientist are now able to make crops resistant to specific insects and chemicals allowing for better weed and pest control too improve yields.

These advancements have prevented long term inflation in the price of raw agricultural products. Meanwhile the price of oil has increased markedly over the last several decades. As oil becomes more scarce and agricultural productivity continues to increase it is inevitable that producing fuel from agricultural products will become economically viable. Then as in the past agricultural will be the key to industrialization. I like Tacos -William Shakespeare

Answer 2

Many farmers were allowed to switch to the production of cash crops over substance farming because railroads and new inventions made the transportation and farming of said crops much easier

GL