John T. Schlebecker

“ Machines move but do not live, and therein lies the major difference between agriculture and the other arts. Farmers deal with plants and animals but the museum can show only the things a farmer uses as he accommodates to and regulates nature. Some of the objects, in themselves, give a fair idea of how the farmer used them. Most people, after all, know about edged blades and digging tools. Nearly anyone can grasp what a man might do with a scythe or a plow. Even the working of a modern reaper needs only a little explanation. ”

“ The sheep shears, which anyone can understand, represent less to the farmer than do the sheep. Sheep shears, no matter how sophisticated and no matter how necessary, do not explain sheep husbandry. The shears tell little about the wool industry, and nothing much about sheep breeds. And so on through the list of agricultural enterprises.
Museums must collect and exhibit the tools, implements, and machines which farmers use in their business. These items, however, seldom make up the core of real agricultural activity. ”

“ Factories everywhere supplied farmers with the sophisticated tools and machines of the new agriculture.
In these years urbanization also went forward rapidly. Cities of the east grew fantastically, and even in the interior cities rose from wilderness outposts to gigantic metropolises. Within one man's lifetime Chicago increased from 350 people in 1830 to 1,099,000 in 1890. Simultaneously, tremendous developments in transportation kept the nation and its economy tied together. All of these developments had a profound influence on farming and farmers. ”

“ The part of America that was destined to become the United States started its history at the very time when the parent European civilization began to make major breakthroughs in science and technology. Thus, Americans became the automatic beneficiaries of the achievements of others. Because of peculiar opportunities and needs, Americans could and did push on to unique achievements. ”

“ For the most part, a museum cannot show the essential biological aspects of agriculture. Agricultural production involves the farmer in the course of nature in its seasons, and in the peculiar laws of living things. In these respects, agriculture stands rather apart from transportation, manufacturing, and artistic industries where the tools, machines, and raw materials remain fairly inert as men work on them. ”

“ First, changes in implements, tools, and methods result from the accumulation of knowledge. Device builds upon device: first came the wheel, and then, much later, the tractor.
Secondly, the potential user of the device must feel a need for it. The new method or device not only must save him work but must clearly increase his well-being. If any device or change merely increases the wealth of someone else (a tax collector or a landlord for example) , the farmer seldom will adopt the new technology. ”

“ The hardy American animals could survive in spite of casual care. Americans had few barns and sheds, but the world market for meat did not demand barns, stalls, and fancy feeding. American dairy cows yielded ridiculously low volumes of milk, butter, and cheese, but dairy products, after all, served only the resident Americans. The corn- and mast-fed hogs of America provided [4] ham that was equal to any in Europe. If the European consumer bought American food, the American farmer thought it pointless to consider the comfort and emotional well-being of his animals. ”

“ Elitist systems, where one group of people get educated and the others get worked, could not accomplish much in the modern agricultural world. Furthermore, notions of two kinds of education—one for the better sort who think, and another for the inferiors who do the work—could and did seriously impede the development of a modern agriculture. The backwardness of most of the world, the poverty of the underdeveloped countries, stemmed in large part from the impediments created by an ignorant population. ”

“ The ever-increasing number of people called for more food, and for changes in European farming. The Europeans' growing wealth also allowed them to buy luxury items from around the world: silk and spice and everything nice. The goods came not only from the Far East and Africa but also from the New World. When Europeans began to settle America, they almost at once had the advantages of a large and growing metropolitan market in western Europe. This market provided opportunities for wealth, but only if the American farmers developed appropriate commodities and produced them at reasonable prices. ”

“ Grain farmers not only had to have a wheat which yielded well but a wheat which resisted the attacks of nature. For example, Turkey Red wheat, introduced in 1873 by Mennonites from Russia, not only survived drought and yielded well but provided the genetic elements for newer breeds of wheat. The farmer not only wanted good-producing meat cattle, such as the Herefords, but had to control diseases and predators which killed the animals. Sick animals do not grow properly or, in the case of dairy animals, give much milk. ”

“ American inventors of farm implements made important strides earlier than those in any other field. In turn, American farmers made more and better use of discoveries and inventions.
From the 1650s onward Europeans expanded their activities in all fields and in all directions. By that time Europeans had already discovered the New World, and had seized or bullied most of the Old. European trade and industry increased, and as these grew so also did population and urbanization. People multiplied, and an increasingly greater proportion [3] of them began to live in towns and cities. ”

“ Most European criticism about American farming centered on things of no consequence to American farmers, who were selling in a world market. True, Americans tended toward slovenly cultivation, but niceness of method mattered little if the land yielded an abundant exportable surplus. Americans paid less attention than Europeans to fertilizer, but Americans at first had less need for it. Livestock, in spite of nearly continual importations from Europe, tended to decline from a European standpoint. ”

“ The transportation system, rapidly moving farm commodities, made farming profitable in remote regions far distant from the coast. Farmers also felt the advantages of the return flow of goods and services: the mail order catalog, the industrially made reapers and threshers, and countless other items. City people made a countless range of devices for farmers—from steel plows to steam engines.
Meanwhile, as these events altered the life of the farmer, a burst of activity took place in invention and discovery. These activities had a delayed but considerable impact on farm methods and technology. ”

“ Inventors and manufacturers gradually but constantly improved tractors along with the various devices attached to them. Most notable were the corn picker, in 1909, and the cotton picker, in 1942. (Dates are for commercial production in each instance.) Farmers found both machines impracticable until a power source independent of the ground wheel had been developed. More than anything else the tractor and its related equipment finally set men free from the worst drudgery of farming. It also set many farmers free from the need to farm at all. ”

“ Thus, European implements and draft animals did not appear until comparatively late. As long as they depended chiefly on Indian crops, Europeans simply substituted iron hoes for stone hoes, and iron axes for stone axes. But methods such as girdling, slash and burn, and the rest, came almost directly from Indian technology. The Pilgrims of Plymouth Plantation went 12 years without a plow; Virginians went almost as long. The hoe of corn culture served well enough to keep men alive. Hunting and fishing, of course, supplemented the food supply, as it did for the Indians. ”

“ Also, the tractor sharply reduced labor needs for the major crops of the United States. Even dairying, least susceptible to this sort of improvement, felt the impact of the tractor in such things as harvesting fodder and storing silage by running loaders off the tractor power-take-off. Since the very founding of agriculture men had discovered only one way to prosper in farming. The farmer had to exploit somebody or something. ”

“ Furthermore, the new machines and the pure-bred livestock cost money which could be most profitable only if the farmer specialized in one, or at most two, types of enterprise. So the greater efficiency created by technology impelled farmers to greater specialization, and with specialization came even greater efficiency. Anyone who specializes will likely be more efficient because of the mastering of skills. ”

“ These and many other achievements substantially changed the farm enterprise in two major directions: first, advances in technology allowed farmers to do more in less time; second, discoveries in science allowed farmers to increase the yield from the land. Farmers got more from each acre, plant, and animal.
Farmers could use the savings in time brought by better implements and new machines to increase the amount of land farmed and the number of animals cared for. Presumably, the farmer could also use the saved time for greater leisure. ”

“ Commercial production of these commodities compelled American farmers to embrace the best European technology insofar as that technology fit the American scene. The plants, animals, methods, and tools all derived from Europe. Contrary to a common European view at the time, the immigrants did not bring the worst available methods to the New World. ”