I’m Mark Oppold with today’s American Agriculture History Minute.
After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and the American victory in the War of 1812, plus the building of canals and the introduction of steamboats, new opportunities opened up in agriculture. And in times of rapid economic growth, a farmer could still improve the land he was on for far more than he paid for it, and then move further west and repeat the process.
Land was cheap and it was fertile, but the process of clearing it and building a new farmstead wasn’t. Now, frontier life wasn’t new for those Americans, but it did present new challenges for farm families who faced bringing their food to market across a wide distance.
That’s today’s American Agriculture History Minute. I’m Mark Oppold. Thanks for reading. I’ll see you next time.