Agricultural Events

The early 1860s witnessed a dramatic change from hand power to horses, which historians characterize as the first American agricultural revolution

1860 — Total population: 31,443,321; Farm population: 15,141,000 (estimated); Farmers made up 58% of labor force; Number of farms: 2,044,000; Average acres: 199

The 1860s — Kerosene lamps became popular

The 1860s — The Cotton Belt began to move westward

The 1860s — The Corn Belt began stabilizing in its present area

1860 — 30,000 miles of railroad track had been laid

1860 — Wisconsin and Illinois were the chief wheat states

1862 — Homestead Act granted 160 acres to settlers who had worked the land 5 years

1865–1870 — The sharecropping system in the South replaced the old slave plantation system

1865–1890 — Influx of Scandinavian immigrants

1865–1890vSod houses common on the prairies

1865-75 — Gang plows and sulky plows came into use

1866–1877 — Cattle boom accelerated settlement of Great Plains; range wars developed between farmers and ranchers

1866–1986 — The days of the Cattlemen on the Great Plains

1868 — Steam tractors were tried out

1869 — Illinois passed first designated “Granger” law regulating railroads

1869 — Union Pacific, first transcontinental railroad, completed

1869 — Spring-tooth harrow or seedbed preparation appeared