Delaney’s group
Throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, many factors changed
American agriculture. These factors included the poor economic conditions following the
Panic of 1893 which left many farmers in debt; technological advancements throughout the
period that benefited the farmers’ crop production and lifestyle; and Government action that
tended to benefit Eastern businesses and forced farmers to adjust their lifestyle accordingly.
During the later half of the 1800’s, economic conditions made the way of American
agriculture change drastically. One of the economic conditions that affected the farmers
greatly was when the government started to limit the amount of crops that the farmers could
harvest and sell, due to what they called “overproduction.” When this happened, the farmers
who harvested a lot of that crop would lose a significant amount of money. (Doc G) The
Farmers’ Alliance tried to help the suffering farmers by promoting the issuing of an income
tax, to better the profits from the crops that were sold. The Farmers’ Alliance also backed
the Sub- Treasury Plan, which suggested that the government set up warehouses to store
the over-produced crops. Under this plan, the government would also give the farmers
loans for the over produced goods, the farmers were responsible for paying back the loan in
under a year. Farmers at the time were also affected by the long going argument about
backing government money in silver or in gold. Most farmers favored backing in silver,
because this was the most profitable for them. In their eyes, backing the money in gold
would only help the wealthy, and make the lower classes go into more debt than they
already were. (Doc J) The Panic of 1893 helped make this debate more intense. Many
farmers were losing money, and some were forced to turn to share cropping in order to
afford their land. (Doc E) Due to many of the farmers sinking further into poverty, they
began to really push for the backing in silver. Many of them through their political weight
behind Democrat William Jennings Bryan, who agreed with the Silverites. Many of the
Silverites were farmers from the frontier. Around the 1870’s wheat was very profitable for
farmers in the West. Wheat production was down across the nation, in response to that, the
great conditions in the West made many farmers move there and become successful. (Doc
D) In the year of 1875, the price per bushel of wheat was $1.01, compared to the price of
$0.42 for a bushel of corn during the same year. (Doc A) Due to the big differences between
the prices of crops at the time, many farmers went back to a one crop economy, where they
focused on the sale of one crp instead of many. (Doc A) To reach the complete market for
their crop, farmers now turned to the use of railroads to distribute their goods across the
nation. Seeing how important the railroads were to farmers, especially those in the West,
railway shipping fees began to skyrocket. This made the farmers very angry and they
thought it was unconstitutional. In response to this problem, the Farmers’ Alliance started to
promote the supportment of government regulation of the transportation industry. However,
Illinois was the only state that had government regulation of their railroad fees. (Doc C)
Technological advancements throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century
changed American agriculture in the West greatly. At this time, the railroad barons were
spreading their rails across America as can be seen in the Railroad maps of 1870 and
1890. In the span of twenty years the number of rail lines had shot up and now spanned the
majority of the continent. (Doc B) It was because of the railroads that farmers in the West
were able to prosper because trains could transport goods to them and harvested crops
back to the East for a profit. Railroads also influenced both the beginning and the end of the
cowboy era. It was cattle cars and trains that originally allowed for the “Long Drive” to take
place as prior to that there had been no way for cattle to be shipped to the stockyards. Now
that railroads were stretching further into the West, they were close enough to drive cattle
to. Railroads also brought the end when they transported shepherds and other farmers to
the plains. These new settlers fenced their land which made it impossible for the long drives
to continued. Thus, the era of the cowboy was ushered out and cattle became a corporate
business. Other technological advancements, like the combine pictured in “The Wheat
Harvest, 1880” enabled farmers to produce more grain and therefore, profit from it. The
combine was typically pulled by a team of forty horses or mules and was a community
affair. It worked much faster than traditional methods of harvesting and was a more
simplified process. (Doc D) Innovations such as barbed wire, created by Joseph Glidden,
were used to fence in livestock and mark out property lines. This brought Western farmers
much closer to the modern farm with separate pastures for each type of grazing animal.
The government policies between 1865 and 1900 often benefited the development
of business rather than agriculture. The government gave land and money grants to railroad
companies like the northern pacific railroad rather than help farmers in need. The reaction
of the government to the pleas of the farmers was to state that farmers suffered from
overproduction instead of creating new policies to help these farmers (Doc G). The federal
government was more concerned with aiding robber barons, such as John Rockefeller and
Andrew Carnegie. In addition, the government took away land from farmers in the late
1800's, to create reservations for the Native American Tribes (Doc I).The American farmer’s
or Populist Party believed silver would be more beneficial (Doc J). In 1892, the Populist
Party created The Omaha Platform, which rejected the laissez faire philosophy of
government and embraced ideas some considered radical but in the election of 1896,
William Mckinley won the presidency, granting the government the change in backing of
gold, for the American money, halting the Populist Parties new platform. Farmers were still
using the homestead act to own land in the west, but as the “boomers” were overridden by
the “sooners” who came into the state and picked the best land before those farmers could
reach their destination.The government policies hurt agriculture because in this time period
the government policies favored big companies.
The beginning of the second half of the 1800’s marked the start of many significant
changes in American agriculture. These changes were caused by advances in technology,
government actions and poor economic conditions. In the late 1860’s the government
tended to focus on manufacturing, rather than the farming industry, which forced farmers to
alter their previous lifestyle. Advances in technology at the time included the ever important
railroad system; this new way of transportation let farmers in the West ship their goods to
the manufacturers in the East, and the buyers in the South. The Panic of 1893 caused a
depression that hit those in agriculture harder than those in manufacturing, leaving many
farmers in debt.