46 OUR USE OF THE LAND 



of farm machinery to increase the production of crops. This 

 meant that an individual farmer could produce more, but it 

 also meant that he needed more money with which to buy ex- 

 pensive machinery. 



The gang plow and the combine, for instance, enabled farm' 

 ers to cultivate more land. This meant there had to be a much 

 greater market for farm products to consume the larger crops 

 and to give the farmer the money with which to pay for the 

 machinery. Machinery turned the farmer into a business man 

 who had to have an outlet for his goods and capital to pay for 

 his equipment. So long as there was a large foreign market to 

 absorb the grain, cotton, and beef produced by these commer' 

 cial farmers, all was well. But when Russia and other coun- 

 tries also turned their vast plains into wheat fields, the foreign 

 market was overcrowded. This meant that the American pro 

 ducer could not make a profit. 



Then there was the problem of transportation. Railroad 

 rates were high, and the charges of the railroad companies to 

 store grain in elevators were higher. When the farmers tried 

 to build their own elevators, the railroads either refused to 

 haul grain to them, or charged such high freight rates that it 

 was impossible to ship to them. A man who wanted to ship 

 goods from Gilman, Illinois, to New York discovered that the 

 freight charge was $65. To ship the same amount of goods 

 from Peoria, 86 miles farther west, cose but $39. The reason 

 for this was that the railroad had a competitor at Peoria, hence 

 the lower rate. At Gilman the railroad had the field to itself, 

 and charged accordingly. 



In 1874 Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin, three of the new 

 farm states, passed laws regulating railroad rates and methods. 

 The Supreme Court approved of these so-called "Granger 

 laws" in 1876, but ten years later it changed its opinion and 

 declared in effect that the states had no right to regulate rail 

 roads. 



