TRACTOR TRIVIA and other interesting stuff 6/26/2024

[953 nut 55,183]

Socio-economic impact of tractorization

 

During the last Quarter of the nineteenth century the first heavy steam traction engines and larger farm implements necessitated the building of better roads and more substantial bridges to cross creeks and rivers. All rural residents benefited from these improvements.

Numerous small manufacturers built and maintained machinery to make the operation of the steam tractors successful. As gasoline and kerosene internal combustion powered tractors took the place of steam machines and horse less labor was required on the farm and people were able to enter the industrial sector. Increased crop yields resulted in improved transportation to and from major markets and shipping points. This led to greater choices for consumers and better prices for the commodities farmers produced.

Farms have grown larger and one farmer can manage to cultivate the land that several families would have worked in 1900. Land formerly devoted to raising and feeding horses has been converted to cash crop production or reverted to grassland or forest. This is a bit of a double-edged sword because many rural families left the land in favor of city life and some rural communities have become only a memory.

No-till farming practices and improvements in machinery technology have further reduced the backbreaking labor required for crop production and improved soil quality while increasing crop yields.  

The tractor has had a positive impact on economic growth in the United States. Horses and mules, while providing farm power, ate up more than twenty percent of the food they helped farmers grow! By replacing them with machines that consumed much less expensive fuel and didn’t need to be fed when not working farmers were able to reduce their costs. More importantly, the millions of farm workers freed up by the technology were able to contribute their labor elsewhere in the economy, creating large economic benefits. According to a recent estimate the U.S. would have been almost ten percent poorer in 1955 if it weren’t for the farm tractor. Coupled with the increase in yields generated by the advances in biological and chemical research, the farm tractor has helped agriculture significantly.

While the positive economic impact of tractorization is undeniable, the loss of connection to the land and small town values has been a negative outcome in my opinion. Generations of agricultural families have experienced the sadness of giving up the farm and the rural way of life. Neighbors working with one another to harvest crops and achieve common goals seems to be the exception rather than the rule in urban settings.

[8ntruck 6,998]

Interesting graph.  You can see various things in history - the spike in the number of farms during WW 2, the drops in acres per farm during the several economic downturns after 1970, and the correlation between the peak average used for feed production and the number of farms. 

[lynnmor 7,305]

8 hours ago, 8ntruck said:

Interesting graph.  You can see various things in history - the spike in the number of farms during WW 2

 

Since farming was a way to avoid the draft, some became instant farmers.  I'll never forget my mother telling me about a neighbor claiming that his garden qualified him as a farmer while my father was drafted when he actually had five times the land and garden.

[Handy Don 12,210]

 

On 6/26/2024 at 7:15 AM, 953 nut said:

Generations of agricultural families have experienced the sadness of giving up the farm and the rural way of life

 

I have mixed feelings about the “small town” rural way of life having lived it in NE Pennsylvania through 8th grade.

 

Undeniably I felt safety and closeness amongst my neighbors. There was hard work but I also had a lot of fun and freedom.

 

I also knew by name only one black person, one Jewish family (non-observant, I later learned), and no one from the Middle East, South America, Africa, or Asia until we moved while I was in high school. I had no idea at all what was going on in Vietnam or elsewhere in the world. I never had to reflect on the merits or failings of value systems compared to that of my family which was largely similar to that of the community at large, let alone make and defend choices.

Edited June 27 by Handy Don