American Agriculture

American Agriculture History Minute: Railroads Changed Agriculture

Dan American Agriculture History Minute, This Land of Ours

I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute.

American Agriculture
By anonymous (neither source cites an author). – J. Snowden Bell, The Early Motive Power of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Sinclair, New York, 1912
Public Domain/Wikimedia image

Railroads dramatically changed agriculture and rural America as the country continued to grow. The concept of a rail highway was first conceived by Colonel John Stevens in 1812. The earliest railroads were horse-drawn cars running on tracks.

The first chartered railroad was the Granite Railway of Massachusetts, which was approximately three miles long and completed in 1826. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first to carry freight and passengers in February 1827.

That’s today’s American Agriculture History Minute. I’m Mark Oppold. Thanks for reading. I’ll see you next time.