Question

What were the advantages and disadvantages of mechanical harvesting machines in the USA?

Answer 1

Advantages :

(a) The new machines allowed the fanners to rapidly clear large tracts, break up the soil, remove the grass and prepare the ground for cultivation.

(b) The work could be done quickly and with a minimal number of hands. With power driven machinery, four men could plough, seed and harvest 2000 to 4000 acres of wheat in a season.

Disadvantages :

(a) But mechanisation reduced the need for labour and caused unemployment. Machines brought misery to the poor farmers. Many had taken loans and bought machines but when demand plummeted after the first world war, they found themselves in debt which they could not repay. Many deserted their farms and looked for jobs which were difficult to {ind due to mechanisation of agriculture.

(b) By the mid 1920’s, there was a large surplus of grain. After the war, demand fell as export markets collapsed.

(c) Unsold stocks piled up, storehouses overtlowed and vast amounts of com and wheat were turned into animal feed. This led to Great Agrarian Depression of the 1930’s which ruined wheat farmers everywhere.