War in the 20th century

Essay by rob1234High School, 12th gradeF, March 2003

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As a reaction to rapid industrialization, many reforms were needed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. With railroads raising prices for short distance rides and the high cost to ship goods farmers found their funds to be insufficient and crops began to fail. The new problems that farmers faced caused them to have to move and find new techniques in crop production. Eventually laws were passed to help regulate the prices of railroads.

During the Agrarian Movement many farmers faced problems. One of their problems was overproduction, the opening of the west, machinery, and new techniques increased production and caused prices to fall. High costs of railroads made it very difficult for farmers to ship goods. The railroads charged higher prices and higher rates for shorter distances. Another problem was the farmers had to borrow money to make improvements, buy machinery, and banks charged high interest rates. The last problem the farmers faced was crop failures/disasters.

The farmers had to deal with droughts, insects killing the crops, floods, and bad crops wiping out saving crops from other years.

In order to make crop harvests abundant; farmers came up with new methods and ideas so that their crops would be more sufficient. For starters, they moved from the coast to the Great Plains, but a lack of water and wood created serious problems. The prairie had fertile soil but was covered by a thick sod with thick roots. Deere's new steel plow was able to break up the thick sod. Because the sod was so thick, settlers were able to make bricks out of it and build houses with walls several feet thick. Also barbed wire was used instead of wooden fences in order to keep animals away from the valuable crops. Windmills were used to pump water...