Mechanization of Agriculture

Agriculture = Farming Mechanization = a change from doing by hands and/or animals to doing by machine

Farming Get land ready for planting Plant crops Maintain crops Harvest crops Get crops ready to sell

Farming in the Colonies Hand tools Manual labor Slavery Animals – oxen, horses

Machine Inventions Cotton Gin 1793 Eli Whitney Separated seeds of cotton from the cotton fibers Quicker production of cotton

Machine Inventions Reaper 1834 Cyrus McCormick Cut, threshed, and bundled grain Increased production of grains

Machine Inventions Steel Plow 1837 John Deere Replaced wooden plows that could not cut through the soil in new territory

Machine Inventions New inventions made farming easier Increased the amount of (production) goods Increased slavery because more cotton could be grown in the south, and the Cotton gin made it easier to separate cotton fibers from the seeds Rise of Plantations