3b
Stirrings of change abounded in the United
States in the 1860s. If the present offered challenge
and hard work, the future offered the promise of
substantial increases in material well-being along almost
every line. Agricultural production was increasing
rapidly and innovations were making their presence felt
heavily.^
It appears from the returns of the last census,
that the ratio of increase of the principal
agricultural products of the United States has
more than kept pace with the increase of population.
Indeed, there appears no reason to doubt the
continuance of an abundant supply of all the great
staple articles, equal to the necessities of any
possible increase of population or national
contingency for years to come.(7)
Agriculture also was becoming dependent upon
machines and upon the manufacturing industries. Future
increase depended upon further mechanization and the
interdependence of agriculture and manufacturing was
coming to be recognized.
are considered in the remainder of this chapter. Quan
titative changes, which reflect the consequences of
changing conditions, are left primarily to Appendix A.
^Figures showing changing agricultural
productivity and production after i860 are included in
Appendix A.
7
Joseph C. G. Kennedy, Superintendent, U.S.
Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Preliminary
Report on the Eighth Census, i860 (Washington, D. C.:
Government Printing Office, 1862), p. 80.