Researched
The tractor
The petrol-engine tractor replaced draught animals and raised the area one farmer could work by orders of magnitude.
Open in the interactive tree →John Froelich built a working petrol tractor in 1892, and Henry Ford's mass-produced Fordson (1917) made it affordable. In the US the share of workers in farming fell from about 40% in 1900 to roughly 2% today. Land once used to feed horses could grow food for people.
Prerequisites
- The plough~3500 BC
- Mechanical reaper1834Horse-drawn harvest machines created the demand for engine power
- Internal Combustion Engine1876
- Mass Production (Assembly Line)1913
Unlocks
- Green Revolution1960s
- Precision agriculture2020s