History of Agriculture

Agriculture has progressed substantially in the past 300 years. Below are some highlights of U.S. Agriculture.

1600s-1700s
All forms of domestic livestock, except turkeys, were imported at some time. Crops borrowed from Indians included maize, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, pumpkins, gourds, squashes, watermelons, beans, grapes, berries, pecans, black walnuts, peanuts, maple sugar, tobacco and cotton.

1700s
Oxen and horses used for power, crude wooden plows, all sowing by hand, cultivating by hoe, hay and grain cutting with sickle, and threshing with flail. Tobacco was the South’s chief cash crop and first important American export. Transportation by water, on trails or through wilderness.

1790s
Total U.S. population: 3,929,214. Farmers make up 90 percent of the labor force. Invention of the cotton gin (1793).

1800-1809
Average annual value of agricultural exports: $23 million or 75 percent of total exports.

1819-1825
U.S. foodcanning industry established.

1825-1850
Some schools and colleges begin to offer courses in agriculture and related sciences.

1830s
Beginning of railroad era. The first soil survey is performed in Massachusetts (1830). McCormick reaper patented (1834). John Deere and Leonard Andrus begin manufacturing steel plows (1837).

1840s
Total U.S. population 17,069,453. Farmers make up 69 percent of the labor force. First grain elevator in Buffalo, New York (1842).

1850s
Average annual value of agricultural exports: $189 million or 81 percent of total exports. Commercial corn and wheat belts begin to develop. Steam and clipper ships improve overseas transportation. Farmers begin cooperatives to make cheese and market wool and tobacco. The self-governing windmill is perfected (1854).

1862
U.S. Department of Agriculture set up without Cabinet status. The Morrill Act is passed establishing land-grant universities which rank among the top educational and research universities in the world today. Homestead Act granted 160 acres to settlers who had worked the land for five years.

1862-75
Change from hand power to horses characterized the first American agricultural revolution.

1866-86
The days of the cattlemen on the Great Plains.

1870s
Average annual value of agricultural exports: $53 million or 79 percent of total exports. Silos come into use. Refrigerator rail cars introduced, increasing national markets for fruits and vegetables. Glidden barbed wire patented; availability of barbed wire allowed fencing of rangeland, ending era of unrestricted, open-range grazing (1874). Georgia sets up first state department of agriculture (1874).

1880s
Total U.S. population: 50,155,783. Farmers make up 49 percent of the labor force. Average annual value of agricultural exports: 74 million or 76 percent of total exports.

1890s
Average annual value of agricultural exports $703 million or 71 percent of total exports. Increases in land under cultivation and number of immigrants becoming farmers cause great rise in agricultural output. Boll weevil crosses Rio Grande and begins spreading north and east (1892).

1900-1909
Average annual value of agricultural exports: $917 million or 58 percent of total exports.

1900-1920
Extensive experimental work is carried out to breed disease-resistant varieties of plants, to improve plant yield and quality, and to increase the productivity of farm animal strains.

1906
Appointment of first county agricultural agent. Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act passes.

1909-1917
Boys’ and girls’ club work underway. Precursor of 4-H Clubs.

1910-1915
Big open-geared gas tractors come into use in extensive farming areas.

1910-1919
Average annual value of agricultural exports: $1.9 billion or 45 percent of total exports.

1920s
Truckers begin to capture trade in perishables and dairy products. First hybrid-seed corn company organized (1926). Future Farmers of America founded (1928).

1930s
One farmer supplies 9.8 persons in the U.S. and abroad. 58 percent of all farms have cars, 34 percent have telephones and 13 percent have electricity. All-purpose, rubber-tired tractors with complementary machinery come into wide use. Use of hybrid seed corn becomes common in the Corn Belt (1930-35). Farm prices and income reach Depression bottom (1932). Drought and dust-bowl conditions develop (1932-36).

1940s
Average annual value of agricultural exports $2.42 billion or 22 percent of total exports. Extension agents work in every rural county in the country, including Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico (1941). Frozen foods popularized (1941-45).

1945-1970
Change from horses to tractors and the adoption of a group of technological practices characterized the second American agricultural revolution.

1950s
Average annual value of agricultural exports: $3.53 billion or 22 percent of total exports. Trucks and barges compete successfully for agricultural products as railroad rates rise. One farmer supplies 15.5 persons in the U.S. and abroad. Number of tractors on farms exceed number of horses and mules for first time (1954).

1960s
Average annual value of agricultural exports: $5.76 billion or 22.9 per cent of total exports. Soybean acreage expanded as farmers use soybeans as an alternative to other crops. Agricultural shipments by cargo planes increase, especially strawberries and cut flowers. One farmer supplies 25.8 persons in the U.S. and abroad.

1970s
Average annual value of agricultural exports: $19.8 billion or 19 percent of total exports. No-tillage agriculture popularized. One farmer supplies 75.8 persons in the U.S. and abroad. Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Norman Borlaug for developing high-yielding wheat varieties (1970). 853,000 students enrolled in agricultural courses (1970). The American Agriculture Movement organize demonstration referred to as a “tractorcade” in Washington, DC (1979).

1980s
Average annual value of agricultural exports: $35.6 billion or 15 percent of total exports. More farmers use no-till or low-till methods to curb erosion. Biotechnology becomes viable technique for improving crop and livestock products. In 1981, U.S. agricultural exports peak at $43.8 billion then decline until 1987. Hard times and debt affect many farmers in the Midwest (mid 1980s). More farmers began to use low-input sustainable agriculture techniques to decrease chemical applications (1989).

1986-1995
Country singer Willie Nelson organized Farm Aid concerts to benefit indebted farmers.

1994
U.S. Department of Agriculture declares ’94 Year of New Uses of Agriculture Products. One farmer supplies 129 persons in the U.S. and abroad.