How Did Farmers Respond To The Decline Of American Farmers In The 1900's

Through the period of 1865-1900, America’s agriculture underwent a series of changes .Changes that were a product of influential role that technology, government policy and economic conditions played. To extend on this idea, changes included the increase on exported goods, do the availability of products as well as the improved traveling system of rail roads. In the primate stages of these developing changes, farmers were able to benefit from the product, yet as time passed by, dissatisfaction grew within them. They no longer benefited from the changes (economy went bad), and therefore they no longer supported railroads. Moreover they were discontented with the approach that the government had taken towards the situation.

In order to do this, the new Agricultural Adjustment Administration paid landowners to take property out of production. What ended up happening was

After the Civil War there were many factors that contributed the changes that occurred in farming in America. Among them was the drive for the South to renew and regain what had been lost due to the war. Leaders saw it as a time to diversify and turn towards industrialization. The Industrial revolution was underway and with it brought many new inventions that would lead to growth in the farming industry. The wide open space between the East and the West called “The Frontier” was open for homesteading. New immigrants with their farming knowledge and ability were flooding the East and West gates of the U.S. This was a time in American history when Americans

In the period 1865-1900, technology, government policy, and economic conditions all changed American agriculture a great deal. New farming machinery had a large role in the late 19th century, giving farmers the opportunity to produce many more crops than they had ever been able to previously. The railroads had an enormous influence on agriculture. They were able to charge the farmers large fees, expenses that farmers barely had enough to cover, in order to transport their goods throughout the expansive country. The booming industry also changed American agriculture, creating monopolies and gaining incredible wealth with which the farmers simply could not compete. Economically, the monetary policy along with the steadily dropping prices of

Following the Civil War, a second industrial revolution in America brought many changes to the nation’s agriculture sector. The new technologies that were created transformed how farmers worked and the way in which the sector functioned. Agriculture expanded and became more industrial. Meanwhile government policies, or lack of them for a while, and hard economic conditions put difficult strains on farmers and their occupation. These changes in technology, economic conditions, and government policy from 1865 to 1900 transformed and improved agriculture while leaving farmers in hardship.

Pursuing this further, the rich soil of the West was becoming poor, and floods contributed to the problem, and, eventually caused erosion. Beginning in the summer of 1887, a series of droughts forced many people to abandon their farms and towns. As circumstances worsened, farmers were beginning to be controlled by corporations and processors. The farmers were at the mercy of many trusts, which, in turn, could control the productivity and raise prices to high levels. Furthermore, during the late 19th century, many farmers considered monopolies, trusts, railroads, and money shortages as evident threats to their lifestyle. The rise of these monopolies and trusts worried many farmers because they felt that the disappearance of competition would lead to erratic and unreasonable price rises that would harm consumers. Oftentimes, these “robber barons” would prevent competitors from reaching the markets by restricting their ability to transport their goods. In Document E, James B. Weaver wrote of the main weapons of the trust-organized commerce: threats, intimidation, bribery, fraud,

Bankers- High interest rates caused the farmers to pay even more when they didn't have the money to pay.

Some of the groups, like the Populists attempted to unite black and white farmers on a central political and economic goal. However, the divide between the blacks and whites would prove to

At the turn of the 20th century, the United States had become the leading industrial power in the world, due to 19th century technological advances which escorted America out of an agrarian based economy and into the industrial revolution. However, this period of transition made life increasingly difficult for American farmers. For example, improvements to America’s railroads presented a competitive advantage to large crop producers while placing family farmers at a substantial disadvantage. Furthermore, the prices of crops such as cotton, once the keystone of America’s agricultural economy, were falling which made it more difficult for farmers to survive. Consequently, farmers were forced to mortgage their property. Although some of the farmer’s complaints about life in the early 20th century, such as national monetary policy were unjustified, railroads and other consequences of the industrial revolution posed serious threats to the way of life for farmers.

The New Deal, a series of programs and laws created to assist agriculture struggles, hurt numerous families. In the San Joaquin Valley of California, sent recruiters to encourage farmers to sign a contract limiting a farmers’ acreage. Specifically, for cotton, the contract stated that the farmers “would not grow more than so many acres” (p. 25). The concept of signing a contract to limit cotton production was one of the many attempts to fix the agricultural economy. According to Bean (1938), he affirmed Holmes’ experience since cotton is one of the few overproduced products (p. 28). The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimated that the gross income for farmers from all production between 1928 and 1932 would shrink 55 percent for each cent. The USDA accounted for the increase in production of commodities in international markets which damaged the United States’ agriculture gross income.

Farmers were forced to leave their crops to rot, leaving more people to go hungry

a. Western farmers experienced great losses. They lost their American markets because of high tariffs. Grain prices dropped dramatically.

The 1920’s were a difficult time for those in the agriculture industry. It was a time of industrialization, however the farmers were unable to keep up. Furthermore this caused new laws to be made and old laws to be vetoed. Farmers were unable to repay their debts and were put out of business. This caused a decline in the goods being both imported and exported. This led to the great depression that began in 1929.

Farmers doubled the amount of crops they produced in order to be financially stable and even then the money they had was not enough. Most farmers were producing more and more crops therefore the value of the crops dropped. In the 1930s due to the high amounts of crops produced their value dropped extremely low and most farmers went bankrupt, at this point farmers looked up to their government for help and when the government refused and did nothing, farmers began to rebel and cause riots. Farmers teamed up together and began protesting, sometimes they took drastic measures in order to express themselves and achieve what they wanted which later came to be known as “The Farm Strikes”. Some of these strikes included causing blockades,

Starting in 1929 after the unexpected day of Black Thursday, many stock market businesses were faced with a huge decrease in other companies’ prices. This sudden decline was because of the overproduction of items, which resulted for the items becoming too recurrent. This depreciated the stock to the point where a stock market crash would put the country in a position where many start to lose hope in our economy. While problems in the city with businesses erupted, agricultural areas weren’t holding up too well either. Overproducing was also a problem out in the rural areas. Mechanization allowed for harvesting crops and other farming chores to be more efficient, but since more items were made faster, crops lacked significance. Soon, farmers