Growing a Nation Growing a Nation  
    A History of American Agriculture 1800  
    by decade by category      
     
   
Economic Cycles

1807-09
Embargo depression
1810-14
Uneven wartime prosperity
1815-19
Speculative boom
1819-22
Panic and depression



Farm Economy
1817-40
Antagonism between commercial and farming interests of the South; commerce especially opposes the institution of a protective tariff
Farmers & the Land

1800
Total Population: 5,308,483
1803
Louisiana Purchase
1810
Total population: 7,239,881
1819
Florida and other land acquired through treaty with Spain



Farm Machinery and Technology


1819
Jethro Wood patents iron plow with interchangeable parts
1819-25
U.S. food canning industry established





Crops & Livestock
1805-15
Cotton begins to replace tobacco as the chief southern cash crop
1810-15
Demand for Merino sheep sweeps the country
1815-25
Competition with western farm areas begins to force New England farmers out of wheat and meat production and into dairying, trucking, and later, tobacco production
1815-30
Cotton becomes the most important cash crop in the Old South
1819
Secretary of Treasury instructs consuls to collect seeds, plants, and agricultural inventions
Transportation

1800-30
Turnpike building (toll roads) improves communication and commerce between settlements
1807
Robert Fulton demonstrates practicability of steamboats
1815-20
Steamboats become important in western trade




Agricultural Trade and Development

1800-09
Average annual value of agricultural exports: $23 million or 75% of total exports
1810-19
Agricultural exports: $40 million/year or 87% of total exports
1815-60
Cotton is by far the most important agricultural export
1816
Tariff of 1816 includes protection for wool, sugar, hemp, and flax



Life on the Farm


1810-30
Transfer of manufactures from the farm and home to the shop and factory is greatly accelerated
Farm Organizations & Movements
1802
George Washington Parke Custis institutes an agricultural fair in Arlington, VA
1811
Berkshire Agricultural Society organized under Elkanah Watson's leadership
1817-25
Agricultural societies and fairs flourish under State aid
Agricultural Education & Extension

1810
First American agricultural periodical, the Agricultural Museum, begins publication
1819
The American Farmer and the Plough Boy periodicals begin publication







Government Programs & Policy
1819
State legislature sets up the New York State Board of Agriculture, first organization of this sort
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