The Story of American Agriculture

Food, Land & People in a Changing America The story of American Agriculture through 1877 Debra Spielmaker Utah Agriculture in the Classroom

Geography, the Climate and Land
Deep well drained topsoil, prime agricultural land.
Temperate climate, moderate temperature, and adequate rainfall.
What is agriculture?

Early America, the Food and Land
Three Sisters: Corn, Squash, and Beans
Pumpkins, Potatoes, Tomatoes, Peanuts, Sunflowers, Cotton, Pineapples & Blueberries
Farming and Traditions, Green Corn Ceremony
Crop and livestock production
Food production harvesting techniques of Native Americans

America, the Food and Land Today, almost half of the world’s food crops come from the plants that were first grown in the Americas.

Early America the Fiber and Land
Plant leaf and stem fibers
Cotton
Indians knew how to weave cotton
1600s southern colonies grew this crop on a small scale for self sufficiency
1700s Cotton is grown on a larger scale in southern colonies

America, the People the Land, and a New Economy
Indians lived a sustainable life.
New colonists in Jamestown were forced to work on the farms if they wanted to eat (the preferred looking for gold).
Tobacco production allowed the Virginia colony to succeed and establish a stable form of government.

Hearts and Minds There seems to be 3 ways for a nation to acquire wealth: the first is by war...this is robbery: the second by commerce, which is generally cheating: the third by agriculture, the only honest way... Benjamin Franklin

Transformed America, the Food, Land and People
1493 - Columbus introduces calves,
goats, sheep, pigs, hens, fruit,
and old world vegetable seeds.
1607 - English colonists plant grain,
potatoes, pumpkins, and melons.
1609 - Indians teach Jamestown
settlers how to grow corn.
Significant events creating the most progressive culture in the world!

Hearts and Minds I know of no pursuit in life in which more real and important services can be rendered to any country than by improving its agriculture, its breed of useful animals, and other branches of a husbandman’s care. George Washington

Transformed America, the Food, Land and People
- First Negroes arrive at Jamestown.
1780 - U.S. Ambassador Ben Franklin
sends soybean seeds back
from France.
1786 - George Washington breeds the
first mules in the U.S.
1793 - Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin.
Thomas Jefferson invented the
moldboard plow.
1794 - Whiskey Rebellion: western
farmers revolt against a grain tax.
1776 - Farmers make up 92% of the population, of 5 million.

Hearts and Minds Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most wedded to its liberty and interests, by the most lasting bonds. Thomas Jefferson

Transformed America, the Food, Land and People 1803 – Louisiana Purchase, a port for American farmers. 1805 - Cotton replaces tobacco as the main crop in the south. 1810 - Beginning of the “Industrial Revolution. 1819 - U.S. canning industry started. 1825 - Erie Canal finished. 1795-1815 Sheep and wool industry emphasized. 1830 – 275 labor hours to produce 100 bushels of wheat (5 acres)

History and Technology Cotton Gin

Southern Dependency A burial description… “ The grave was dug through solid marble, but the marble headstone came from Vermont. It was a pine wilderness but the pine coffin came from Cincinnati. An iron mountain overshadowed it by the coffin nails and screws and the shovel came from Pittsburgh…A hickory grove grew nearby, but the pick and shovel handles came form New York…That country, so rich in underdeveloped resources, furnished nothing for the funeral except the corpse and the hole in the ground.”

History and Technology Spinning Mill

History and Technology Transportation Erie Canal 1817-1825

Hearts and Minds Every nation should … be able to feed and clothe and defend itself. If it rely upon a foreign supply that may be cut off…it cannot be independent. Henry Clay

Transformed America, the Food, Land and People 1831 - Cyrus McCormick invented the grain reaper, and the concept of paying installments or buying on credit. 1836 - Grain combine patented. 1837 - John Deere manufactures steel plow. 1843 - Sir John Laws founded the commercial fertilizer industry by developing a process for making superphosphate. 1850 - Rembert & Prescott developed a mechanical cotton picking machine. 1845 – 1855 Great Potato famine in Ireland.

Transformed America, the Food, Land and People 1855 - Michigan and Pennsylvania established the first state agricultural colleges. 1858 - Mason jars, used for home canning. 1862 - President Lincoln creates the first Department of Agriculture and the Morrill Land Grant College Act. Homestead Act give 160 acres to settlers who will farm the land for five years. 1867 - Barbed wire invented. Utah State University Established 1888

Land Distribution 160 & 80 acre tracts From 12.5 cents per acre to $ 1 per acre, depending on value Graduation Act of 1854 160 acre tracts Free Homesteads Homestead Act 1862 160 & 80 acre tracts $1.25 per acre (grants to railroads &canals at $2.50 per acre) Preemption Act of 1841 160 & 80 acre tracts $1.25 per acre Act of 1820 320 – acre tracts $2 per acre Act of 1800 640 – acre tracts $2 per acre Act of 1796 640 – acre tracts $1 per acre Ordinances of 1784-1785 Size of Tract Sale Prices Land Acts

Transformed America, the Food, Land and People 1869 - Transcontinental railroad completed. 1865 - Pasteurization invented. 1870 - Refrigerator railroad car patented. 1875 - Milking machine invented. 1860 - Farmers make up 58 % of the population. 1890 - 35-40 labor hours to produce 100 bushels of wheat on 2.5 acres Automatic milker, 2000

Patterns of Conflict and Economic Turning-Points
Fiber (wool) production and textile mills (dependence on England’s mills).
Conflicts with Indians
Tobacco to Cotton, late 1700s
Farm profits and depression

Food, Land and People = Agriculture
Does agriculture have a different definition today than 250 years ago?
What do you think Ben Franklin, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson would say about agriculture today?
How did these men shape our American culture and our future?
Is agriculture as important today as in 1776? 1877?

The Story of American Agriculture

by Mr. M

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

1 Embed 4

Statistics

The Story of American Agriculture Presentation Transcript