The resulting surges in production in the Northwest (the Midwest as we know it today) did not immediately dislocate agriculture in the older states. Over the decades, however, the leading producers of hogs, corn, and wheat became western states.
Early in the 1800s, western hog production was greatly limited by high transportation costs; hogs were driven overland from Ohio to the urban centers of the East or were sent south by boat for sale to the plantations. Cattle, too, were driven in great herds to the East, where they were sold for immediate slaughter or for further fattening. But it was not long before pioneer farmers could market their hogs fairly close to home. Slaughtering and meat-packing centers arose in the early West, and by the 1830s, Cincinnati, nicknamed Porkopolis, was the most important pork-processing city in the country.
Commercial hog raising required corn growing. For a while, hogs were allowed into the forests to forage on the mast (acorns and nuts that fell from the trees). But regular feeding is necessary to produce a good grade of pork, and corn is an ideal feed crop. Corn can be grown almost anywhere, provided rainfall is adequate. It had been
The morning of the opening of the Oklahoma Land Rush, April 22, 1889. The people shown here are waiting for the gun shot that will signal their right to enter and claim land formerly held by Native Americans. Those who jumped the gun were known as “sooners.”
Cultivated in all the original colonies and throughout the South. As late as 1840, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia led the nation in corn production. But within 20 years, it was apparent that the states to the northwest would be the corn leaders.38 On the eve of the Civil War, Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, and Indiana led in corn production, and it appeared that Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska would one day rank ahead of Kentucky and Tennessee, then in fifth and sixth place, respectively.
The attraction of new lands for wheat was also tremendous. Western wheat could not come into its own until facilities were available for transporting it in quantity to the urban centers of the East; even as late as 1850, Pennsylvania and New York ranked first and third, respectively, in wheat production nationally. Ohio, which had become a commercial producer in the 1830s, ranked second. During the next decade, the shift of wheat production to the West was remarkable. By 1860, Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin were the leading producers, and the five states carved from the Northwest Territory produced roughly half the nation’s output. The major wheat-growing areas were still not firmly established, however; further shifts to the West in the production of this important crop were yet to come.
Ultimately, the western migration forced changes on the agriculture of the northeastern states. For a quarter of a century after the ratification of the Constitution, agriculture in New England, except in a few localities, remained relatively primitive; the individual farm unit produced practically everything needed for the household. With the growing industrialization of New England after 1810, production for urban markets became possible. Between 1810 and 1840, farmers in the Middle Atlantic states continued to grow the products for which their localities had traditionally been suited, and, as noted,
Pennsylvania and New York remained major wheat producers until midcentury. But the arrival of the steamboat in the West in 1811, the opening of the Erie Canal in the 1820s, and the extension of the railroads beyond the Alleghenies in the 1840s meant that products of the rich western lands would flow in ever increasing amounts to the East. Western competition caused the northeastern farmer to reduce grain cultivation, and only dairy cattle remained important in animal production. Specialization in truck gardens and dairy products for city people and hay for city horses came to characterize the agriculture of this region, and those who could not adapt to the changing market conditions moved to the city or went west.
World History
