Excerpt: Within a few years after our Republic was founded the cotton gin and iron plow were invented. From that date to the present time there have been continuous developments and improvements of agricultural machinery and equipment. Conditions have been more favorable toward increased machinery use in this country than in the older established countries. Our great national resources included rich productive lands physically adapted to large machinery and through most of the 19th century these lands were available to new settlers practically without cost. Our population was relatively sparse and with industrial demand for labor increasing throughout most of this time farm labor was scarce and wage rates higher than in the old countries. In the new areas farm practices had not become fixed and the size of the farm could be easily expanded to correspond to the capacity of new machines. It is normally in the newer areas that conditions are most favorable for a rapid expansion in machinery use. This report covers some of the major developments which have taken place in agricultural machinery and equipment throughout the 19th century and up to the present.
