Eli Whitney - The Cotton Gin

The cotton thread machine was a fabulous invention, but there was a shortage of cotton fiber to spin because the agricultural production of cotton was a very time consuming and labor intensive process. In 1793, another mechanical entrepreneur, Eli Whitney, devised a mechanism for removing the seeds from the cotton fiber that was 50 times more effective than the hand-picking process, thus inventing the cotton gin (gin short for “engine”). Whitney hoped to improve the life of slaves with his cotton gin by making the tedious process of removing seeds less burdensome and to perhaps even eliminate the need for slaves altogether. However, the impact of his invention caused slave owners to plant more cotton, cultivating more land, and raising the demand for slaves. The use of slavery boomed because of the cotton gin.

The machine was fairly simple to create, and by the time Whitney secured a patent in 1794, a number of copies had already been created. Although he did not see much profit from the cotton gin, Whitney had unintentionally begun a revolution. Cotton production soared, the South became known as King Cotton, and planters cleared more and more land for cotton growth.

The Steel-tipped Plow and Mechanical Reaper

The growing population was possible due to further technological innovations that made agriculture and food production easier. The two major innovations. The steel-tipped plow allowed more acres of land to be cultivated each season by making it faster and easier to plant crops. The mechanical reaper allowed crops to be harvested with equal efficiency that they could now be planted with he steel plow. The effect of these agricultural innovations was that much more food could be produced by much less people than before, feeding the population boom that America was experiencing at the time.

Technology of the Open Range (Texas)

Barbed Wire

Barbed wire, or barb wire, is a type of steel fence constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strands invented in 1867. Barbed wire was used to restrict the movement of cattle and mark property lines. Before barbed wire, farmers used Osage orange, a thorny bush that was time-consuming to transplant and grow. When wire fences became widely available in the United States in the late 19th century, it became more affordable to fence much larger areas than before, and intensive animal husbandry was made practical on a much larger scale. Barbed wire helped protect range rights in the West, reduced the cost of ranching, and contributed to the close of the open range. Barbed wire would bring the era of the cowboy to a close, as a vast labor force to herd and drive the cattle was no longer necessary. One fan of the new fencing technology wrote in 1873, “it takes no room, exhausts no soil, shades no vegetation, is proof against high winds, makes no snowdrifts, and is both durable and cheap.”

Methods of Irrigation

Irrigation is the process of bringing water from nearby rivers, lakes, and aquifers to fields for agriculture. Irrigation also helps with frost protection, suppressing weed growth in grain fields, preventing soil erosion, cooling livestock, dust suppression, disposal of sewage, and in mining. Irrigation has been a central feature of agriculture for over 5,000 years and is the product of many cultures. Historically, it was the basis for economies and societies across the globe, from Asia to the Southwestern United States. The era of westward expansion and industrialization in the United States, however, saw the use of windmills to pump water from the ground (aquifers).

Windmill

A windmill is wind-powered technology used to create power to operate machinery or generate electricity. Sometimes known as “windpumps” or “wind engines,” they power a mechanical apparatus that draws water out of the ground. They share a general silhouette—reinforced tower, slatted fan wheel, rudder-like tail—and most are around forty feet high. The water windmills pumped out of the ground could be used for irrigation to grow crops.

Refrigeration

The term refrigeration means cooling a space, or keeping food or materials cold. In time refrigeration became more affordable to the wider population. It allowed new settlement patterns to emerge, food started lasting longer, becoming much healthier and posing a less of a health risk. By the 1890s refrigeration played a vital role in the distribution of food. The cattle and meat-packing industry relied heavily on natural ice in the 1880s and continued to rely on manufactured ice as those technologies became available. Refrigeration allowed foods to be kept cooler and therefore allowed for the transportation of perishable food items much greater distances, especially with the invention of railroads, steamboats, and highways. It was the beginning of a global food market.

Cattle were transported by railroads, with the cattle loaded in stock cars. At the end of a long train journey, many cattle arrived sick, while others died during the trip. You can see they had a problem delivering healthy cattle for consumption of meat. With the invention of refrigeration, they started the practice of slaughtering cattle before the train journey. They packed the meat into refrigerated freight cars, known as "reefers". That facilitated the shipment of meat by train over long distances, with the meat arriving at its destination in edible condition.

See also:

Corn and industrialized agriculture