Farms

Question 1

When did the dominance of rail occur

Answer 1

approximately divide the time between the Revolution and the First World war in half

Question 2

what did the frontier iin the north depend on?

Answer 2

immigration, transportation and land sales

Question 3

How much of the labour in farming went to clearning land in the 1850s

Answer 3

As much as 20%

Question 4

Tennant farmer

Answer 4

• required less capital
• Still required capital: in 1860 in the Midwest, owning took a capital commitment of $1715 versus $325 for a tenant

Question 5

What caused wehat prices to rise in the mid 1950’s

Answer 5

Crimean War-Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire

Question 6

What made midwestern farms competative with farms in the northwest?

Answer 6

-First canals and then railways changed the cost structure
- This shifted to product mix in both place

Question 7

What drove the wheat boom and bust?

Answer 7

• Variable yields due weather
• Variable prices on world market
• Tariff and protectionist measures
• Technological change
• Transportation, marketing and finance

Question 8

Homesteaders in the 19th century usually needed

Answer 8

clear land

Question 9

US farm productivity grew rapidly in the second half of the 19th century, and research has attributed this mostly to

Answer 9

mechanization

Question 10

As transportation improved

Answer 10

• farmers further from the east coast could compete in urban grain supplies
• farmers on the frontier could purchase lower cost manufactured goods
• eastern farmers near cities switched from grain to higher value foods, such as cheese and fresh fruit

Question 11

The Canadian Wheat Boom

Answer 11

refers to the rapid growth in agriculture at the turn of the 20th century

Question 12

The explanation for the timing and expansion of prairie settlement rests primarily on

Answer 12

Cultivation techniques, technical change and climate