Evolution of Farming

Farming has changed a lot over time, in many different ways. There were many good and convenient parts of farming, and not many essential things that we use. Farming was way different back in the 1800s, they did not have things to use that we have nowadays. They didn’t have machinery, and could only grow certain crops, and there are many more reasons on how it changed overtime.

“Most of the farmers would grow tobacco, wheat, barley, oats, rice, corn, vegetables, and more” (historyforkids.net). Now farmers grow a lot more things than they did long ago. Now farmers grow corn, and other grains, wool, cotton, wool, rice, fruits, soybeans, wheat, oil crops, sugar, sweeteners, and there are many more interesting crops that farmers produce (ers.usda.gov).

In the 1800s only little land was used for farming. Some rich people had bigger space for their fields, and often had slaves who worked for their family. They could afford slaves that will do everything for them, so they would not have to do anything and depended on the slaves to do it for them. People who were not rich back then had smaller areas for farming and had to do all the work for themselves (historyforkids.net). They had to wake up very early in the morning and do all of the work all by themselves to provide for their family. It was not just the men who did the work most of the time. Women and their children had a special role too. Women also got up early to make the food so their family could eat, they would also make things that were accessible to use in their family home. In the 1800s the women also planted the garden and picked the vegetables and sold and traded them for other items (historyforkids.net). Children also had a special role in the family. Boys on the farm would get up early to help their father and the girls or their sisters would often help their mother with work (historyforkids.net). Now farmers still have many responsibilities to take care of, and we don’t have the option of having slaves anymore.

Machinery has helped farms progress so much in the past couple years. Way back then their machinery was very different from it is now. Some machinery is the same, but they made it better and more useful. Some things that were made in the 1800s are the lawn mower, the grain elevator, and fertilizers, and many more (pequea.com). Now there is way more useful machinery to use in farms that farmers will use. Farming back then took longer than it does now because now we have machinery to use and make the process speed up and go way faster than it did in the 1800s. Now companies like John Deere and other companies are making machinery for farmers to buy to use on their own farm (pequea.com).

The price of machinery has gone up over the many years but it also became more useful. Back then things were very expensive for the people who were alive, but now we think it was cheap but it was not for them. They used horses or oxen to make power for the Steam Engine to harvest the corn or any crops. It took a long time to do this process because the oxen or horses would run out of energy to pull the machinery, so they had to give them a break and rest periods throughout the day time (nationaldaycalendar.com). Now we mostly use Combines to harvest our crops and it makes it a lot easier to use and work with (nationaldaycalendar.com). In the 1800s they still used combines, but they were pulled by oxen or horses. They were built way differently then they are nowadays (nationaldaycalender.com).

Some interesting facts about farmers that you may not know are. In the 1800s farmers did not work on Sundays, families often went to church on this day. The farmer’s family often had more than six kids which is a pretty big family. It was pretty hard because poor farmers had to live in two roomed homes which had to fit their huge family (historykids.net).

Farming has changed a lot over time. It is way more fun to do and a lot easier to work with. People can learn alot of farming and it helps people stay active and staying on task. There are a lot of differences and similarities in the innovation of farming. Maybe the innovation of farming will

Work Cited

Webfx. Pequea.com. February 8, 2022, https://www.pequea.com/history-of-farm-machinery/. March 8, 2023.

Nationaldaycalendar.com. Nation Day Calendar 2013-2023, October 9, 2020, https://nationaldaycalendar.com/7-inventions-that-changed-how-farmers-produce-food/. March 8, 2023.

Ers.usda.gov. Website Administrator, Monday, January 24, 2022, https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/crops/. March 8, 2023.

Historyforkids.net. History For Kids. 2023, https://www.historyforkids.net/an-agricultural-economy.html. March 8, 2023