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The history of agriculture in the United States covers the period from the first English settlers to the present day. In Colonial America , agriculture was the primary livelihood for 90% of the population, and most towns were shipping points for the export of agricultural products.
While farming in the southern colonies took place for most of the year, northern growing seasons were more restricted, limiting the availability of fresh fruit and vegetables. However, the coastal colonists' proximity to the ocean gave them a bounty of fresh fish to supplement their diet year-round, especially in the north.
Thus, by mid-century, most colonial farming was a commercial venture, although subsistence agriculture continued to exist in New England and the middle colonies. Some immigrants who just arrived purchased farms and shared in this export wealth, but many poor German and Irish immigrants were forced to work as agricultural wage laborers.
Benedict, Murray R, Farm Policies of the United States, 1790-1950: A Study of Their Origins and Development (1953) online; Bidwell, Percy Wells, and John I. Falconer. History of Agriculture in the Northern United States 1620-1860 (1941) online; Bollinger, Holly. Outhouses (2005) online; Bowers, William L. The Country Life Movement in America ...
The economic history of the United States spans the colonial era through the 21st century. The initial settlements depended on agriculture and hunting/trapping, later adding international trade, manufacturing, and finally, services, to the point where agriculture represented less than 2% of GDP.
Plantations in southern New England also included farming of beans, squash, and pumpkins, which were planted with the corn. Additionally, though the tobacco industry thrived to a much greater extent in Southern colonies, tobacco was also grown to a relatively lesser extent in New England. Other crops included melons and strawberries. [4]
The cotton gin, invented by Eli Whitney, revolutionized slave-based agriculture in the Southern United States.. The technological and industrial history of the United States describes the emergence of the United States as one of the most technologically advanced nations in the world in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Gray, Lewis C. History of Agriculture in the Southern United States to 1860 (2 vol. 1933) vol 1 online; .also see vol 2 online; Hubbell, Jay B. The South in American Literature, 1607–1900 (Duke UP, 1973) online; Kulikoff, Allan. Tobacco and slaves: The development of southern cultures in the Chesapeake, 1680-1800 (UNC Press Books, 2012) online.