Make an assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of the use of mechanical harvesting machines in the USA
Answers
Advantages:
The advantages of mechanical harvesting were:
(i) They allowed big farmers to rapidly clear large tracts, breakup the soil, remove the grass and prepare the ground for cultivation.
(ii) These machines reduced dependence on labour and increased efficiency. With power driven machinery four men could plough, seed and harvest 2,000 to 4,000 acres of wheat in a season.
(iii) The machines helped increase production by bringing virgin land under cultivation, to meet the growing demands of urban dwellers and the export market.
Disadvantages:
The disadvantages of mechanical harvesting were:
(i) For poor farmers machines brought misery. Machines reduced dependence on labour leading to unemployment. For many a poor it became difficult to find jobs.
(ii) Many farmers who bought machines on loans, thinking the boom would last, faced hard times once the boom ended by 1920s. They faced difficulty in paying back lo Some were driven to take the extreme step of abandoning farms.
(iii) Production had expanded so rapidly that during the post war years, when the export market collapsed and wheat prices fell farmers were left with large surpluses and overflowing store houses.
(iv) Extensive cultivation made feasible by machines resulted in the Great Agrarian, Depression of the 1930s, which ruined wheat farmers everywhere.
(v) In discretionary use of machines ruined the entire landscape resulting in ecological disbalance. Periods of plenty were followed by droughts. Ordinary dust storms became black blizzards. The American dream of land of plenty turned into a nightmare.
Here is your answer
The advantages and disadvantages of the use of mechanical harvesting machines in the USA are mentioned below:
Advantages:
(i) It saved the use of physical labour and increased agricultural output. For example, the mechanical reaper could cut in a day as much as five men could cut with cradles and 16 men with sickles.
(ii) The new machines allowed big farmers to clear large forests, break up the soil, remove the grass and prepare the land for cultivation. With power-driven machinery, man could plough seed and harvest 2000 to 4000 acres of wheat in a season.
(iii) The USA became one of the largest producers and exporters of wheat in the world.
(iv) It also led to the encouragement of trade and commerce. It brought about a period of plenty and prosperity for America and their people.
Disadvantages:
(i) Poor labourers had to face the loss of jobs and starvation because single machine could do the work of scores of labourers.
(ii) For the poor farmers, machines brought misery. Many of them took bank loans to buy machines. They could not pay back their debt and deserted their farms.
(iii) The boom of late 19th and early 20th centuries came to an end in 1920. There was a large surplus of foodgrains Wheat prices failed and export markets collapsed. All these ultimately led to the Great Agrarian Depression of the 1930s.
(iv) The expansion of wheat agriculture also led to the Dust Bowl.
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