Effects Of 1999 Dbq On Agriculture

From 1865 to 1900 agriculture was at war, shifting from small, individual farms to larger commercialized farms because of the devaluing of currency, competition from corporate farms with more land and better technology, and government policies that proved detrimental to those clinging to old ways of life.
To escape debt and seek profit in new lands, many farmers started working westward but so did corporations looking to expand. Because of westward expansion, companies like the union pacific railroad company built railroads that connected lands all across the U.S. and earned 10 miles of land in either direction of the railroad. This land put the railroad in control of many western lands and in control of the prices of land, travel and resource transportation.
Out of everything that changed agriculture, the increasing economic difficulty was arguably the most powerful. With so many farms, the amount of produce rose while the prices of produce fell, in some cases, like with Cotton, prices fell over ⅛ of the original price (Doc A). Because of the extremely low prices, as low as 10 cents in some places, some farmers did not make enough to survive and promptly went out of business. Even with groups like the the Farmer's Alliance defending smaller farmers by pooling together resources and money in

With inventions such as the combine (Doc D), fewer men could plow more land much faster, meaning that corporations could afford more expensive equipment leading to a cycle of profit. A monthly magazine talks about a "slaughtering capacity of 400,000" (Doc F), showing just how powerful these farms were becoming. While the increase in resources did benefit the consumer, it led to overproduction. Mary Elizabeth Lease writes "10,000 little children...starve to death every year" (Doc G), because she, like many others, were furious about the loss of economic stability in