Impact of Railroads

• In 1869, the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific railroads joined, connecting the vast nation by rail, in Utah. The advent of faster transportation to get produce to markets was a boon for farmers until the railroads raised transportation and storage prices so high that they consumed most of the farmers' profits. Railroads also allowed farmers to easily leave farming to move to cities to work in the many manufacturing plants that sprang up throughout the country. The increase in jobs and wages in cities increased the country's urban population by 400 percent between1870 and 1910.
  
  

Impact of Technological Innovations

• Technological advancements during the late 1800s allowed farmers to use animal-driven tools rather than relying on human power. Horse cultivators, steel plows, threshers and cotton gins reduced the number of workers needed to bring in crops and increased production. Steam-powered farm machinery eventually replaced animal power as well. The subsequent higher crop yields resulted in lower prices at the same time that machinery production costs increased. This threw many farmers into debt and encouraged many more to move to cities to earn easier money. In 1800 three out of four American male workers worked in agriculture; by 1900 more than two-thirds of workers were employed in manufacturing and service jobs.
  
  

Bad Weather & Finances

• A series of droughts in the western Great Plains further destroyed the farming industry during the late 1880s. Western Kansas lost half its population during a four-year time span, with agricultural problems reaching their highest by 1890. Farmers tried to take action by forming the Populist Party in 1892 to restore silver as currency instead of the gold standard. A financial panic in 1893 occurred when banks failed in the South and Midwest, resulting in high unemployment and low crop prices.
  
  

Discovery of Gold, War & Conveniences

• Many farmers took advantage of the opportunity for quick riches when gold was discovered in Alaska and the Yukon. Then, in 1898, the Spanish-American War drew more men from the agricultural industry. Life for everyone became more convenient as manufacturers processed and preserved more foods and provided off-the-shelf clothing, typewriters, cash registers, cameras, phonographs and bicycles. Telephones and electricity provided better communications and improved lighting and heating. Entertainment opportunities increased as well with more circuses, theater productions, vaudeville shows and organized sports available to all.