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16 - 18th Centuries
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18th century - Oxen and horses for power, crude wooden
plows, all sowing by hand, cultivating by hoe, hay and grain
cutting with sickle, and threshing with flail (a man using a
sickle to harvest wheat by hand is pictured at left) With the
sickle, one person could cut from one-half to one acre in a
hard day's work.
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1700's
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1790's - Cradle and scythe introduced (pictured at left)
1793 - Invention of cotton gin
1794 - Thomas Jefferson's wooden 'moldboard of least
resistance' walking plow tested (pictured below)
1797 - Charles Newbold patented first cast-iron plow
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1800 - 1829
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1819 - Jethro Wood patented the first iron plow with
interchangeable parts ( pictured to the left)
1819-25 - U.S. food canning industry established
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1830's
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1830 - About 250-300 labor-hours required to produce 100
bushels (5 acres) of wheat with walking plow, brush harrow,
hand broadcast of seed, sickle, and flail
1834 - McCormick reaper patented (picture at left)
1834 - John Lane began to manufacture plows faced with
steel saw blades
1837 - John Deere and Leonard Andrus began
manufacturing steel plows
1837 - Practical threshing machine patented
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1840's
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1840's - The growing use of factory-made agricultural
machinery increased farmers' need for cash and
encouraged commercial farming
1841 - Practical grain drill patented
1842 - First grain elevator, Buffalo, NY
1844 - Practical mowing machine patented
1847 - Irrigation begun in Utah
1849 - Mixed chemical fertilizers sold commercially
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1850's
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1850 - About 75-90 labor-hours required to produce 100
bushels of corn (2-1/2 acres) with walking plow, harrow,
and hand planting
1850-70 - Expanded market demand for agricultural
products brought adoption of improved technology and
resulting increases in farm production
1854 - Self-governing windmill perfected
1856 - 2-horse straddle-row cultivator patented
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1860's
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1862-75 - Change from hand power to horses
characterized the first American agricultural
revolution
1865-75 - Gang plows and sulky plows came into use
1868 - Steam tractors were tried out (picture at
the left is a A Cummings Bicycle-Type Steam Mower from
1868-73)
1869 - Spring-tooth harrow or seedbed preparation
appeared
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1870's
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1870's - Silos came into use
1870's - Deep-well drilling first widely used
1874 - Glidden barbed wire patented
1874 - Availability of barbed wire allowed fencing of
rangeland, ending era of unrestricted, open-range grazing
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1880's
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1880 - William Deering put 3,000 twine binders on the
market
1884-90 - Horse-drawn combine used in Pacific coast
wheat areas (picture at left)
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1890's
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1890-95 - Cream separators came into wide use
1890-99 - Average annual consumption of commercial
fertilizer: 1,845,900 tons
1890's - Agriculture became increasingly mechanized
and commercialized
1890 - 35-40 labor-hours required to produce 100 bushels
(2-1/2 acres) of corn with 2-bottom gang plow, disk and
peg-tooth harrow, and 2-row planter
1890 - 40-50 labor-hours required to produce 100 bushels
(5 acres) of wheat with gang plow, seeder, harrow, binder,
thresher, wagons, and horses
1890 - Most basic potentialities of agricultural machinery
that was dependent on horsepower had been discovered
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1900's
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1900-1909 - Average annual consumption of commercial
fertilizer: 3,738,300
1900-1910 - George Washington Carver, director of
agricultural research at Tuskegee Institute, pioneered in
finding new uses for peanuts, sweet potatoes, and
soybeans, thus helping to diversify southern agriculture.
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1910's
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1910-15 - Big open-geared gas tractors came
into use in areas of extensive farming (an
open-geared gas tractor is picture at left)
1910-19 - Average annual consumption of commercial
fertilizer: 6,116,700 tons
1915-20 - Enclosed gears developed for tractor
1918 - Small prairie-type combine with auxiliary engine
introduced
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1920's
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1920-29 - Average annual consumption of commercial
fertilizer: 6,845,800 tons
1920-40 - Gradual increase in farm production
resulted from expanded use of mechanized
power
1926 - Cotton-stripper developed for High Plains
1926 - Successful light tractor developed
(notice the metal wheels on the tractor at left)
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1930's
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1930-39 - Average annual consumption of commercial
fertilizer: 6,599,913 tons
1930's - All-purpose, rubber-tired tractor with
complementary machinery came into wide use
1930 - One farmer supplied 9.8 persons in the United
States and abroad
1930 - 15-20 labor-hours required to produce 100 bushels
(2-1/2 acres) of corn with 2-bottom gang plow, 7-foot
tandem disk, 4-section harrow, and 2-row planters,
cultivators, and pickers
1930 - 15-20 labor-hours required to produce 100 bushels
(5 acres) of wheat with 3-bottom gang plow, tractor, 10-foot
tandem disk, harrow, 12-foot combine, and trucks
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1940's
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1940-49 - Average annual consumption of commercial
fertilizer: 13,590,466 tons
1940 - One farmer supplied 10.7 persons in the United
States and abroad
1941-45 - Frozen foods popularized
1942 - Spindle cottonpicker produced commercially
1945-70 - Change from horses to tractors and
the adoption of a group of technological
practices characterized the second American
agricultural revolution
1945 - 10-14 labor-hours required to produce 100 bushels
(2 acres) of corn with tractor, 3-bottom plow, 10-foot tandem
disk, 4-section harrow, 4-row planters and cultivators, and
2-row picker
1945 - 42 labor-hours required to produce 100 pounds (2/5
acre) of lint cotton with 2 mules, 1-row plow, 1-row cultivator,
hand how, and hand pick
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1950's
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1950-59 - Average annual consumption of commercial
fertilizer: 22,340,666 tons
1950 - One farmer supplied 15.5 persons in the United
States and abroad
1954 - Number of tractors on farms exceeded
the number of horses and mules for first time
1955 - 6-12 labor-hours required to produce 100 bushels (4
acres) of wheat with tractor, 10-foot plow, 12-foot role
weeder, harrow, 14-foot drill and self-propelled combine,
and trucks
Late 1950's - 1960's - Anhydrous ammonia increasingly
used as cheap source of nitrogen, spurring higher yields
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1960's
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1960-69 - Average annual consumption of commercial
fertilizer: 32,373,713 tons
1960 - One farmer supplied 25.8 persons in the United
States and abroad
1965 - 5 labor-hours required to produce 100 pounds (1/5
acre) of lint cotton with tractor, 2-row stalk cutter, 14-foot
disk, 4-row bedder, planter, and cultivator, and 2-row
harvester
1965 - 5 labor-hours required to produce 100 bushels (3
1/3 acres) of wheat with tractor, 12-foot plow, 14-foot drill, 14-
foot self-propelled combine, and trucks
1965 - 99% of sugar beets harvested mechanically
1965 - Federal loans and grants for water/sewer systems
began
1968 - 96% of cotton harvested mechanically
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1970's
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1970's - No-tillage agriculture popularized
1970 - One farmer supplied 75.8 persons in the United
States and abroad
1975 - 2-3 labor-hours required to produce 100 pounds (1/5
acre) of lint cotton with tractor, 2-row stalk cutter, 20-foot
disk, 4 -row bedder and planter, 4-row cultivator with
herbicide applicator, and 2-row harvester
1975 - 3-3/4 labor-hours required to produce 100 bushels
(3 acres) of wheat with tractor, 30-foot sweep disk, 27-foot
drill, 22-foot self-propelled combine, and trucks
1975 - 3-1/3 labor-hours required to produce 100 bushels
(1-1/8 acres) of corn with tractor, 5-bottom plow, 20-foot
tandem disk, planter, 20-foot herbicide applicator, 12-foot
self-propelled combine, and trucks
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1980's & 90's
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1980's - More farmers used no-till or low-till methods to
curb erosion
1987 - 1-1/2 to 2 labor-hours required to produce 100
pounds (1/5 acre) of lint cotton with tractor, 4-row stalk
cutter, 20-foot disk, 6-row bedder and planter, 6-row
cultivator with herbicide applicator, and 4-row harvester
1987 - 3 labor-hours required to produce 100 bushels (3
acres) of wheat with tractor, 35-foot sweep disk, 30-foot drill,
25-foot self-propelled combine, and trucks
1987 - 2-3/4 labor-hours required to produce 100 bushels
(1-1/8 acres) of corn with tractor, 5-bottom plow, 25-foot
tandem disk, planter, 25-foot herbicide applicator, 15-foot
self-propelled combine, and trucks
1989 - After several slow years, the sale of farm equipment
rebounded
1989 - More farmers began to use low-input sustainable
agriculture (LISA) techniques to decrease chemical
applications
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2000-today
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Farm machinery today is high tech with expansive
productive output and very efficient cost per acre. With
climate control cabs, monitors, GPS systems, and/or
communication equipment, the farm machinery of today is
the most productive ever, often depending upon technology
for that increase rather than raw horsepower.
Today, one farmer supplies 145 persons in the United
States and abroad! (Compare that to 1930 when one
farmer produced enough for 9.8 people.)
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