Objective 02.01

• Describe historical agricultural discoveries that increased the global production of food and fiber

Progress in Agriculture

• Mechanization helps 2% of America’s work force produce the food and fiber to meet the needs of our nation

• There has been a reduction from 90% of nation’s population involved in farming 200 years ago.

Eli Whitney

• 1793• Invented the cotton

gin• Transforms cotton to a

usable product by removing the cottonseed from the cotton fiber.

Cyrus McCormick

• 1834• Grain reaper• Invented to save labor

in cutting wheat, oats, and similar crops

• A threshing device was latter added, which became known as the combine

Thomas Jefferson

• Early 1800s• Invented the first iron

plow.

John Deere

• 1837• Improved the iron

plow by inventing the steel moldboard plow

Edmund Quincy

• 1850• Invented the corn

picker

Anna Baldwin

• 1878• Invented the milking

machine– Replaced hand milking

– Changed the dairy industry

Benjamin Holt

• 1904• Invented the tractor• Replaced the mule as

the source of power• Horse power