Deck 15: Post-Civil War Agriculture

Question 1

During the period of industrialization in the U.S.,real income in the agricultural sector fell.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

After the Civil War,wheat production became regionally specialized and output production in the Midwest increased consequently.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

The rise in output of corn and wheat was achieved more by increasing acres farmed than by raising output per acre.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

By comparing the market value of livestock,corn,wheat and oats in 1880 to 1900,one can see that agricultural growth in the South did not occur.

Question 5

Extensive agricultural cultivation from 1870 to 1910,as described by Hughes and Cain (2011),?meant that

A) there could be no increase in agricultural output per man hour.
B) the percentage increase in acreage under cultivation and the percentage increase ?in agricultural output was roughly the same.
C) the proportion of the labor force in agriculture steadily increased.
D) all of the above were true.

Question 6

Advances in chemical and biological applications before World War I (1914-1918)increased agricultural output per acre.

Question 7

As more people entered the agricultural sector between 1865 and 1913,agricultural efficiency?(i.e.,output per man hour)fell.

Question 8

The last of the public land was sold between 1881 and 1907.

Question 9

Prices,on average,increased in the food market; the demand for food had simply grown faster than supply from the end of the Civil War in 1865 to the beginning of World War I in 1913.

Question 10

The Desert Land Act (1877)and the Cary Act (1894)liberalized the terms for preemption that had been set originally in the 1862 Homestead Act.

Question 11

The need for government subsidies of irrigation produced

A) the Desert Land Act (1877).
B) the Interstate Commerce Commission Act (1887).
C) the Newlands Act (1902).
D) all of the above.

Question 12

Most new settlement in the West came from homesteads.

Question 13

During the period of industrialization in the U.S.,real income in the agricultural sector fell.

Question 14

With regard to agricultural productivity (grain crops)in the post-Civil War period (1870-1910),

A) output per acre went up significantly.
B) output per man-hour went up significantly.
C) output per unit of energy input went up significantly.
D) all of the above occurred.

Question 15

Western agriculture in the nineteenth century can be characterized by

A) a rising labor to output ratio.
B) a rising capital to output ratio.
C) the use of marginal land to increase output.
D) a shift to more efficient crops.

Question 16

In the last three decades of the 19th century,the long-run supply track of farm prices

A) indicates a decline in farm prices due to a slowly increasing demand and a more rapidly increasing supply.
B) indicates a decline in farm prices due to a slowly increasing supply and a more rapidly increasing demand.
C) indicates an increase in farm prices due to a slowly increasing supply and a more rapidly increasing demand.
D) indicates relatively constant prices due to the fact that supply and demand were both increasing?at about the same rate.

Question 17

Higgs (1971)finds evidence to suggest that railroads did take advantage of farmers before 1896.

Question 18

Attitudes toward public land use have changed numerous times since the late 1800s.

Question 19

During the post-bellum period,growth in demand outpaced growth in supply,causing food prices ?to fall.

Question 20

Studies indicate that after the Civil War and up to the 1890s,farmers did not benefit from an improvement in their terms of trade between agriculture and manufacturing.However,they did benefit from a decline in transportation charges relative to farm prices.

Question 21

Farmers' complaints during the post-Civil War period included all of the following except

A) High railroad rates
B) A worsening of the terms of trade between the prices of farm goods and the prices of manufactured articles
C) The fact that national banks were not allowed to accept farm mortgages as loan collateral
D) There is no "except"; all of the above were complaints of the farmers

Question 22

During the period of rapid industrialization in the U.S.after the Civil War,

A) real farm incomes fell drastically.
B) real incomes in the agricultural sector increased at a faster pace than real incomes?in manufacturing.
C) real incomes in the agricultural sector increased at relatively the same rate as real incomes?in manufacturing.
D) real incomes in the agricultural sector increased but at a slower pace than real incomes?in manufacturing.

Question 23

Describe the trends of farm prices from the end of the Civil War to the mid-1890s.Explain why this trend fueled agrarian discontent.

Question 24

Provide the economic reasoning behind the farmers' complaints about high railroad costs,unfair terms of trade,land monopolies and usurious interest rates.

Question 25

Compare internal developmental patterns of the U.S.economy in the antebellum and post-bellum eras.Identify,describe and explain the differences.

Question 26

Identify the sources of growth in demand for and supply of agriculture.Explain why relative growth rates in demand and supply matter when explaining and forecasting price changes.

Question 27

The farm revolt (Populism)led ultimately to all of the following changes in society except

A) Universal public education
B) Women's suffrage
C) Secret ballots
D) The vote for working men

Question 28

Discuss why farmers faced financial difficulties in the late 19th century,and whether they were justified in their complaints and in the goals of the political movements that they supported from 1865 to 1900.Were these goals in the public interest or just in the farmers' interest?

Question 29

Describe the patterns of agricultural production in the "farm belt."

Question 30

Historically barriers to development in the U.S.,such as the dry deserts of some of the country's western states,have been solved by

A) only government action.
B) only private action.
C) a blend of government and private actions.
D) foreign expertise.

Question 31

The South's post-Civil War backwardness was due to all of the following except

A) extensive wartime destruction of life and property.
B) the fiscal disaster of the Confederacy, whereby nine tenths of the state banks in the South vanished.
C) the price of cotton was increasing, as it had prior to the Civil War, thus keeping cotton profitable and discouraging investors in the South from developing a modern manufacturing system.
D) the failure of the sharecropping system to provide incentives for innovation and progress?in agriculture.

Question 32

The closing of the frontier in the early 20th century led eventually to

A) exhausting the land of all fertility by overusing it.
B) a change from an "intensive" to an "extensive" use of the land.
C) an emphasis on water conservation projects and the irrigation of arid lands.
D) the sale of Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service lands to provide more land?for private agriculture.

Question 33

The common ownership of natural resources frequently leads to

A) an efficient resource allocation.
B) an even distribution of resources.
C) an uneven distribution of resources.
D) a productive use of resources.

Question 34

To restrict a wilderness area in the public domain to a particular group in the general public,say the motorists or snowmobilers of today,is

A) democratic.
B) consistent with Thomas Jefferson's view on federal ownership of land.
C) undemocratic.
D) non-discriminatory.

Question 35

Describe the impact that the closing of the western frontier had on agriculture.

Question 36

Which of the following are expected consequences of common ownership of property and resources?

A) The threat of corrupt use
B) The danger of over use
C) Free riding
D) All of the above

Question 37

Identify the sources of extensive agricultural growth during the post-bellum period of U.S.history.

Question 38

The Western railroads had been granted vast amounts of land by the government.Consequently,they

A) Held on to it tightly.
B) Produced a competitive market with homesteading.
C) Wanted to profit only from providing railroad services.
D) Hindered economic development by restricting new farms in the West.

Question 39

Explain why most new Western settlements were linked closely to the railroad industry.

Question 40

Describe how the complaints of farmers changed the degree to which the federal government intervened in business and consumer affairs.

Question 41

Explain how the public ownership of natural resources can lead to problems with the distribution of economic rents through the political system at taxpayers' expense.Illustrate by choosing an example of a special interest group capturing the government's attention through a natural resource policy that benefited a few at the expense of taxpayers.