Much attention has been focused on the industrial revolution and its impact on the western world. Less has been devoted to the revolution in agricultural production that freed people from the land, thus providing a labor force for the growth of industry in the west.

If we mark the late 1700s and early 1800s as the beginning of the industrial revolution in the west, the advances in agriculture that preceded it were certainly less dramatic and visible. Improvements in agricultural techniques, crop rotation, types of crops cultivated, and a rudimentary mechanization of agriculture produced incremental increases in crop yields. Thus, fewer farmers were needed to feed the masses. Birth rates remained high and people migrated to towns and cities.

In class, I mentioned that the very beginnings of the "green revolution" could be traced to the 1930s with the development of various hybrids (corn in particular), but the green revolution, itself did not occur until the 1960s. Indeed, as the following figures will demonstrate, the growth of agricultural production in the latter half of the 20^th century was explosive when compared to what was experienced in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Today, according to The U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor statistics, commercial farms comprise around 25 percent of all agricultural establishments in the in the United States. But commercial farms produce about 90 percent of this country's entire agricultural output. http://www.bls.gov/oco/cg/cgs001.htm The BLS projects that "employment in agricultural production" will continue to decline.

Here's some data that illustrate this: (These are not numbers for you to memorize, rather, think of the consequences of all this increased production for all of society). Also, statistics presented on quantities produced, labor hours involved in production, etc. have not been collected (or presented) systematically over time, so I have just present those production hours that were available. (Sources include USDA Historical Track records (June, 2000); The Statistical Abstract of the U.S. (1980);

COTTON:

WHEAT:

POTATOES: (USDA figures are for Fall Irish potatoes; Statistical Abstract figures do not specify the kind of potato harvested)

MILK:
 

EGGS: (Note the way they measure productivity of the hens that lay the eggs-- "Hours per 100 layers;" and "Rate of Lay", which is defined as "eggs produced during year divided by average number of hens and pullets of laying age on hand during year." Source: The Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1980).