American Agriculture History Minute: First Major Agriculture Revolution

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

The 1870s was the first major agricultural revolution with moving from hand power to horsepower. But also in the 1870s, silos came into use for the first time. Elsewhere in the 1870s, deep well drilling was first widely used and, an important patent, barbed wire in 1874. The availability of barbed wire allowed fencing of rangeland and essentially ended the era of unrestricted open range grazing.

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