Bigger farms

In America's farming heartland in the Midwest, most farms are 160 acres or smaller. But the prairie is mostly open grassland, where field size is only limited by the available equipment. Out there, most farms are three times larger.

Still, few farms anywhere are yet mechanized. Steam power has penetrated every aspect of industrial life, but is seldom seen on a farm. Yet. There are a million farms in the prairie states, but only 1,000 have a steam tractor.

Most still use horses to pull equipment, including the big grain 'combines' used in western wheat fields (upper right). These ungainly machines cut the wheat, extract the kernels, and discard the waste, all in a single pass. 

Corn is the biggest crop, but has to be mowed and harvested by hand. Hay is the third biggest crop, used to feed livestock during the cold, dark winter months. Cattle, pigs and sheep are all important farm products. 
Midwestern farming, 1910

  Big Horsepower
The combine harvester (upper right) is a huge labor saver, combining all the functions needed to produce clean wheat. But it's large and heavy, requiring a huge team of horses (or mules) to pull it across the field. Some enterprising farmers give up actual farming, investing instead in a combine to service all the farmers in the region. They visit each farm in turn, bringing the equipment, and leaving the farmer with a clean field and a full barn.

Corn country, 1910 map

  Corn for the Cows
America's biggest crop is corn. This is grown in small gardens as food, but more commonly in whole fields for use as animal feed. The field variety has larger kernels, which are normally dried right on the cob (upper right) in well-ventilated sheds, to feed livestock during the winter. Unlike wheat, which can be harvested in a single step using a combine, ears of corn have to be picked off the stalk and husked by hand, pulling the leaves away from the enclosed corn. The entire cob, with kernels still attached, is then tossed into a great heap in the waiting wagon, ready to be air-dried in a corn crib. Dried kernels can later be freed from the cob by hand, or with a hand-cranked corn sheller, which might be adapted later to run on steam power.


Wheat to Minneapolis, 1910 map

  Minneapolis Flour Mills
Wheat is America's second-biggest crop, after corn. It's widely grown across all the northern states, from Washington to New York. Wheat is an important ingredient of the American diet, most commonly in the form of bread made from wheat flour. Wheat is harvested in huge quantities in the Dakotas, and shipped by rail to Minneapolis for grinding into flour. The Mississippi river drops 50 feet at Minneapolis, with enough water to power 20 large flour mills (right), including the monster General Mills. Wheat is also shipped by rail to Duluth, where it makes its way across the Great Lakes to Buffalo.


Crops and livestock, 1910 map

  Crops and Livestock
The two other main farm crops are hay and cotton. Hay is needed on every farm to feed livestock through the winter months, while cotton is required by textile mills, many of which are now in the South. Cotton cultivation is spread across the entire South, but East Texas and Georgia are now the biggest producers. The chart shows that revenue from hay and cotton is roughly equal to revenue from slaughtered pigs and cattle. Vegetables, taken as a whole, provide less than half the income of the other big crops. Vegetable farms are typically small, and tend to cluster around the urban areas. Food cannot be grown economically in cities.


Livestock farming, 1910

  Money on the Hoof
Farmers raise livestock for many reasons. Horses are needed for labor, and sold for good money. Sheep are easy to tend, and can be shorn of their wool twice a year. Dairy cows support a substantial business in milk, butter and cheese. But animals butchered for their meat are the biggest source of livestock income. Cattle and pigs are raised in approximately equal numbers, and shipped off to Chicago for slaughtering. Most of the packaged meat is headed directly to the cities, to feed urban consumers that have given up the farm life for city glamour. Hay is a key ingredient for livestock farmers, as grazing opportunities are limited in the winter. Dried corn, oats and alfalfa are also important winter feed.


Texas cowboy cattle drives, 1910 map

  Brief Moment of Glory
Texas cattlemen perform an important function for the meat-packing industry, until barbed wire divides up most of the free-range Texas grasslands, and puts an end to long cattle drives around 1900. Cattle are typically raised in open country, fending for themselves until roundup time. Prairie grass is sufficient to fatten them up, but several acres are required for each animal, so they tend to spread out. Gathering them together again at the close of the season is the job of the cowboy, who has to go out searching for cattle previously marked with the ranch brand. The drive to northern rail connections is 1,000 miles long, and takes two months. A dozen cowboys can drive 3,000 head of cattle, with three horses for each cowboy.