ABSTRACT
The steam engine and machine tools that revolutionized transportation and industry also transformed life on the land, and changed how Americans were fed and supplied with natural materials. New tools and processes eased the farm family’s work and made American agriculture a wonder of productivity around the world, but technology also forced that same family to accept often unexpected or unwelcome changes. Many willingly (but others less obligingly) left the farm, gradually ending America’s self-image as a nation of family farmers. Food that had been home-or locally grown became mass processed and packaged. But soil that seemed to supply endless fertility suffered erosion, and forests were stripped of trees. Mechanization solved, but also created problems. In this chapter, we will paint in broad strokes a picture of how mechanization transformed the farm and forest from 1800 to about 1940 (with discussion of the later period following in a later chapter).
