Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
The Extent of the Farm in American History
Typical Farm Sequence in 1800
Stages of
Production
(Farm
Activities)
Genetics,
Seedstock
Equipment,
Inputs
Planning
Hubandry,
Maintenance
Harvest,
Slaughter
Storage
Processing
Marketing,
Retailing
Preparing
Site
Planting,
Breeding
Typical Farm Sequence in 2000
Figure 9.3
The extent of the farm in American history
Until the middle of the nineteenth century, the family farm extended into virtually all
stages of farm production, from“farm-making”(clearing land and raising buildings) to
processing goods for retail consumption (such as making cheese or sausage). The family
had almost no contact with the market for its inputs, except perhaps with a blacksmith.
The only contact with the market came when the farmer sold (or bartered) his meat and
dairy products directly to consumers (Danhoff 1969). On the prairie, there were sodbusting
firms that contracted with family farmers to clear vast stretches of homogeneous grasslands.
Sodbusting is a task that has a relatively long season (six months even in the northern reaches
of the plains) and almost no timeliness costs. Accordingly, it is not surprising that specialized
firms sold this service to farmers, generally per acre of broken prairie.
The main historical exception to selling products directly to consumers was selling grain
to gristmills. Gristmills, the first of many firms that specialized in what would otherwise
be a single stage of the farm production process, ultimately evolved into large firms that
developed factory production techniques. Because grains are easily stored and a mill can be
operated continuously, milling grain for flour is almost completely removed from seasonal
forces. In this situation the gains from specialization are high: There are no cycles; stages
are long; there are many tasks (predictions 9.2, 9.3, 9.5); and timeliness costs are minimal
(predictions 9.7, 9.8). All of these factors reduce the value of family production and favor
large-scale, factory production.
After the early 1800s dramatic changes in technology led to the rise of separate firms that
specialized in single stages of production and year-round operations. New technologies such
