Read
Scripts &
Listen to Audio
2004 Broadcasts
2005 Broadcasts
2006 Broadcasts
Early
Indiana Agriculture
MP3 Audio
Dense forests and hard soil make early Indiana agriculture challenging… on this Moment of Indiana History.
The
Indiana countryside looked very different when Euro-American settlers
first began moving here in the late 18th century. The landscape was covered
with dense, old-growth forests which had to be cleared before the settlers
could begin farming.
The settlers came armed with only primitive tools and faced years of backbreaking labor. The trees were felled with axes and hauled away by teams of animals, who also helped pull the remaining stumps. Once the land was cleared, it was time to employ primitive wooden plows which would often break in the hard soil.
By the mid 19th century the Industrial Revolution brought the steel plow to Indiana farmers. They also began to use machines for reaping and threshing. These developments allowed each farmer to work many more acres than before. For the first time farmers were able to move beyond subsistence level farming, feeding and clothing the people in the new cities that were growing up around the new industries.
This Moment of Indiana History is a production of the Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations in association with the Indiana Historical Society. More information is available at “moment of Indiana history dot org.
(Photo Credit: Bass Photo Co. Collection, Indiana Historical Society)