THE AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE 

 WEST DURING THE CIVIL WAR 



By Emerson D. Fite 

 (From the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. XX, p. 259, November, 1905) 



ONE of the most remarkable features of the industrial and 

 commercial conditions in the North during the Civil War 

 was the steady growth of the agricultural states of the West. The 

 passionate excitement of war and the deep interest in politics, 

 which the present generation is wont to consider the only promi- 

 nent characteristics of the time, after all absorbed but a part of the 

 country's attention. There was a peaceful expansion westward, an 

 agricultural development in those states comparable to that of the 

 previous decade, which added enormously to the nation's resources 

 and contributed largely to the final success of the North. With- 

 out the war this development might, indeed, have been greater ; 

 but its extent, in spite of the war, was marvellous. 



The leading agricultural states Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, 

 and Iowa were in the midst of great development when the 

 year 1861 opened. Notwithstanding the check caused by the 

 panic of 1857, the advance of their farming interests in the pre- 

 vious decade had been conspicuous, their agricultural area having 

 increased 80 per cent and the value of their farms 270 per cent 

 (from $277,000,000 to $1,027,000,000). Their combined wheat 

 crop rose from 21,000,000 bushels in 1849 to 63,000,000 bushels 

 in 1859, that of corn from 120,000,000 bushels to 230,000,000 

 bushels, and that of oats from 20,000,000 to 38,000,000 bushels. 

 This growth, more rapid than agricultural growth had ever been 

 in any other section of the North, was in strong contrast to the 

 gradually decreasing crops of the East. 



During the years of fighting there was continued advance. 

 Large crops in i860 and 1861 were succeeded in 1862 by 



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