92 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



During the preceding period, as already mentioned, there 

 had been a beginning made in the formation of agricultural 

 associations and the holding of agricultural exhibitions. This 

 movement received a great acceleration during the period from 

 1833 to 1864. By 1860 nearly every state had its agricultural 

 society, and almost every county as well. Nothing perhaps sig- 

 nifies more clearly the interest in agriculture during that period 

 than the rapid development and spread of the county and state 

 fairs. These annual gatherings, with their opportunities to see 

 what was new in agricultural machinery, in live stock, and in 

 farm products, became effective agencies for stimulating im- 

 provements and spreading knowledge. Until the rise of the 

 agricultural colleges, and the 'experiment stations which ac^ 

 companied them, no other agency did so much for agricultural 

 improvement as did these agricultural societies and the exhibi- 

 tions and fairs held under their auspices. The New York state 

 fair held in Buffalo in 1848 opened a remarkable competition 

 in reapers and mowers. This exhibition of these machines, in 

 such large number and variety, is thought by some to mark the 

 real turning point in the transition from hand to machine 

 production. 1 



3. The Period of Westward Expansion 2 



What caused the expansion. Though the expansion of agri- 

 culture during the period immediately preceding the Civil War 

 had been marvelously rapid, it was even more rapid during the 

 period immediately following. The Civil War scarcely imposed 

 even a temporary check upon the development of agriculture 

 in the North, though it completely disorganized the cotton 

 industry of the South and involved it in temporary ruin. Dur- 

 ing the preceding period agriculture had pretty generally passed 

 into the commercial stage, where farmers were living upon the 



1 See E. Levasseur, Agriculture aux Etats-Unis (Paris, 1894), p. 48. 



2 See also Bailey's Cyclopedia of American Agriculture, Vol. IV, p. 64. 



