36. The Second Agricultural Revolution

To keep up with the growing demand for food and to increase crop production, farmers developed machines, farm equipment, and fertilizers. These make up the Second Agricultural Revolution

Technology and Agricultural Productivity

  • Mechanization of Agriculture

    • Seed Drill

      • used for planting seeds

      • invented in England by Jethro Tull

      • replaced the scattering method

      • pulled by horse/oxen

      • drilled holes, then dropped seeds

    • Steel Plow

      • imporved version of normal plow

      • patented in England, 1720 (normal)

      • hard to use in rocky soils (normal)

      • patented in NJ, 1797 (cast iron)

      • 1833, John Deere in Illinois incorporated steel into the design

      • helps turn soil so fresh nutrients could be prepped for seeds

    • Mechanical Repeaer

      • harvests grain cropers mechanically

      • Cyrus McCormick in 1831

      • cut grain with a cythe, tie into bale

      • mechanical repear used horses and worked 10x faster

    • Tractor

      • used interal combustible engine

      • lightweight source of power

      • increased efficiency and decreased manual labor

    • Railroads and Shipping Canals

      • cheaper to produce/transport crops

      • helped ranchers by shortening cattle drives

      • opening of eerie canal in 1825 helped pave a way through the appalachin mountains

      • U.S. became major exporter of surplus wheat and corn due to railroads and shipping canals

      • refrigerated train cars in 1867 helped the transport of perishable goods

  • Agrichemicals

    • chemical compounds composed of pertoleum and natural gas

    • Synthetic fertilizer

      • industrially manufactured nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium

      • made from pretoleum by-products

      • dramatically increased crop yields

    • Petiscides

      • kills/repels animals that harm crop production/growth/health

    • Herbicides

      • chemical subtance designed kill unwanted plants/weeds that compete with crops

    • fisrt known pesticide is sulfur

    • sulfur was used about 4500 years ago in Mesopotamia

    • 15th century saw the rise of mercury, arsenic, and lead as pesticides

Impact of Agricultural Productivity on Farming Societies

  • Better diet and Increased Population

    • longer livespan, people adapted a healthier lifestyle

    • falling death rates between 1870-1920

    • proved Malthus wrong so far

    • maize, potatoes, and cassava diffused across the americas and created a healthier set of crops to chose from

  • Economic Shift

    • Subsistence farming to cash crop and commercial agriculture

    • had negative impacts on rural families

    • diversity of crop output decreased

    • rural families were forced to use cash instead of bartering to purchase items/crops they did not grow on their farms

    • led to changes in family structure as older kids left farms for cities

  • Women’s roles and labor

    • negative impact of farm women who specifically made cheese

    • lost their role in local economies to the men working in factories

    • young women followed flow into cities to get jobs in factories

    • sudden surge in urban population caused an increase in poor living conditions as cities couldn’t keep up with the demands of their populations