How Did Abraham Lincoln's Impact On Agriculture

Abraham Lincoln by: Riley Haase Abraham Lincoln was born in early 1809. During Abraham’s childhood he was forced to work on farms, and had under a year of schooling, so he taught himself to read and write. He moved away from his family when he was 21 years old. He was a self-taught attorney that got his law degree at the age of 23. In 1860 Abraham became the 16th president of the United States. In 1862 he made a huge impact on agriculture by making the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Before this department was mad, there were no regulations on food or farming. In those times, people were unaware of proper hygiene and the importance of properly taking care of their land and animals. It was common to sell meat and vegetables after it was
rotten or tainted. People would get sick and no one would know why. Many people unknowingly even had parasites from this very same thing.
The U.S. department of agriculture started to regulated what you could sell and began educating people on healthier practices in the agricultural field. They also opened labs to help discover what people could and couldn’t eat and began the learning process of testing everything from the land to the harvested food to the seeds to the animals. This decreased the amount of sickness helping the United States.
Most Americans were farmers at this time period so when this Department was made it affected a lot of the population. The USDA also helped farmers manage their crops. The majority of people at that time were uneducated, so the U.S.D.A. sent people out to help farmers improve their crops and show them how to operate a more successful farm. This created more food for the farmers to sell which affected everyone in the country for the better.
The U.S.D.A. was also responsible for giving food to those who could not afford it. As the years went on the U.S.D.A. continues to grow and make new branches for problems and loopholes that arise. Thanks to Abraham Lincoln, the U.S.D.A. had a place to start. Just like Abraham Lincoln, the U.S.D.A. came from humble beginnings, only to branch out and become something far more superior than anyone could have imagined. Abraham also affected agriculture by signing the Morrill Act. This act gave every state the land to open a college with an agricultural branch. One of the earliest colleges was our very own U.W. Madison.
In this time period, a lot of the problems farmer's faced was due to lack of education.
For example, farmer's didn't know the importance of keeping their farms cleaned up and how to properly house their animals. In return, manure and run off contaminated a lot of the fresh water systems. Another example of their lack of education was the fact that a lot of them had no idea how to properly care for and then store their harvest. Most were unfamiliar to even fertilizing or rotating crops.
They also never made the connection that they were responsible for a lot of the sickness going on around the country by selling their improperly cared for meat and plants for consumption.
Steam powered equipment was just becoming a reality. This could greatly improve the need for laborers. The problem with this was that for the uneducated man, who would be able to learn how to operate it and maintain and fix it if most didn't even know how to read?
Most were never taught how to count either. This was a huge problem in the agricultural industry. For example, most had no idea how to account for what they would need to properly plant their ground or figure out their yields or report anything. Education was a must! President Lincoln realized the importance of this and began to make that
available.
Lincoln also signed the Homestead Act in 1862. This act allowed people to buy land at an affordable price and offered that the land become theirs free and clear if they lived on it and made improvements to it for 5 years. Before this act was in place, it was common for people to live on land that they didn't own and then lose it all to the next guy6 that decided to put up a fight for that plot. There really were no borders or plotted out properties with deeds, squatting was very common. Actually legally owning a piece of property was rare until Lincoln signed the Homestead Act.
Lincoln also passed the Transcontinental Railroad Act through congress and got their approval. This railroad opened up a whole new world to the agricultural industry. The small local farmer now could face the possibility of expanding now that they weren't just relying on neighbors and small supermarkets and trade to sell their goods. The idea of getting their harvest to the other side of the country was now their reality. Less common foods and hard to come by seeds were now accessible.
As a farm boy, store owner, self taught attorney, husband, politician, father, war leader and president, Lincoln accomplished more than I could possibly include in a simple paper with only a minimum requirement of one page. He was an impressive man with a lot of insight for a better future. The people of his time were incredibly lucky to have such a president. Especially since the majority of the people were farmer's just trying to survive with little hope. My choosing to skip over so many of his other accomplishments was only due to the huge impact he had on agriculture and the deadline of this paper.