Agriculture in America

Farm Production

Year

Number of Farms*

Bales of Cotton*

Bushels of Corn*

Bushels of Wheat*

Price Index 1860=100

1860

2

3.8

839

173

100

1870

2.7

4.4

760

254

140

1880

4

6.6

1,706

502

100

1890

4.6

8.7

2,125

449

90

1900

5.7

10.1

2,662

599

90

Source: US Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Decennial Census of the United States, 1900. Volume V, Agriculture, Part 1 (Washington DC: United States Census Office, 1902), plate 12

* In millions

Questions for Discussion

  1. What happened to farm production after the Civil War?
  2. What happened to farm prices?

Growth of Farm Tenancy: Percentage of Farms Operated by Tenants 

 

U.S.

South

Non-South

1880

26

36

19

1900

35

47

26

 

Source: E.A. Goldenweiser and Leon E. Truesdale. Farm Tenancy in the United States (Washington, DC: Government Printing Offices, 1924), 20, 23.

Questions for Discussion

  1. Did farm tenancy grow in the late l9th century? By how much?
  2. Was the growth of farm tenancy largely confined to the South? Or was it a national phenomenon?


Regional Differences in Urbanization: Percent Living in Cities of 2,500 or more

 

1860

1900

Northeast

36

66

Midwest

14

39

West

16

40

South

10

18

Source: US Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970, Volume 1 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Offices, 1975), 22-27.

Regional Differences in Per Capita Income: Per Capita Income as a Percentage of U.S. Income

 

1860

1900

Northeast

139

137

Midwest

68

103

West

n.a.

163
(This figure reflects high incomes in mining)

South

72

51

Source: Richard A. Easterlin, “Regional Income Trends, 1840-1950,” in Fogel and Engerman, eds., The Reinterpretation of American Economic History (New York: Harper & Row, 1971), 40.

Questions for Discussion

  1. Did various regions share equally in the growth of national wealth following the Civil War?
  2. If not, why?

Metadata

Era: The Rise of Industrial America, 1877-1900, Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1877
Sub Era: Development of the West, Populism and Agrarian Discontent, The Gilded Age, Reconstruction, Immigration and Migration
Theme: African American History, Economics, Government and Civics, Immigration and Migration
Curriculum Subject: Economics, Geography, Government and Civics
Grade Level: 9, 10, 11, 12
Keywords: Closing the Western Frontier

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