Food, Land & People in a
Changing America
The story of American Agriculture
through 1877
Geography, the Climate and Land
1.
2.
Deep well drained topsoil,
prime agricultural land.
Temperate climate,
moderate temperature,
and adequate rainfall.
What is agriculture?
Early America, the Food and Land
Food production harvesting techniques of
Native Americans
–
–
–
–
Three Sisters: Corn,
Squash, and Beans
Pumpkins, Potatoes,
Tomatoes, Peanuts,
Sunflowers, Cotton,
Pineapples & Blueberries
Farming and Traditions,
Green Corn Ceremony
Crop and livestock
production
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
1.
2.
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
1. When Europeans arrived
Native Americans farmed.
2. New colonists in Jamestown
were forced to work on the
farms if they wanted to eat
(the preferred looking for
gold).
3. 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
Significant events that changed the way we live!
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.
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
George Washington
branches of a
husbandman’s care.”
Transformed America,
the Food, Land and People
1619 - First Negroes arrive at Jamestown.
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
Utah State University
years.
Established 1888
1867 - Barbed wire invented.
Land Distribution
Land Acts
Sale Prices
Size of Tract
Ordinances of
1784-1785
$1 per acre
640 – acre tracts
Act of 1796
$2 per acre
640 – acre tracts
Act of 1800
$2 per acre
320 – acre tracts
Act of 1820
$1.25 per acre
160 & 80 acre tracts
Preemption Act
of 1841
$1.25 per acre
(grants to railroads &canals at
$2.50 per acre)
160 & 80 acre tracts
Graduation Act of From 12.5 cents per acre to $ 1
1854
per acre, depending on value
Homestead Act
1862
Free Homesteads
160 & 80 acre tracts
160 acre tracts
Transformed America,
the Food, Land and People
1869 1865 1870 1875 -
Transcontinental railroad completed.
Pasteurization invented.
Refrigerator railroad car patented.
Milking machine invented.
Modern Automatic milking machine, 2000
1860 - Farmers make up 58 % of the population.
1890 - 35-40 labor hours to produce 100 bushels of wheat on
2.5 acres
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?