Innovation, technology, and a rising interconnectedness pulled the American people out of reconstruction from the civil war and propelled them into the new ambiance of The Gilded Age. The Gilded Age moved past the disorganization, competition, and inefficiency of the past America and strove toward organization, cooperation, and efficiency. From poor farmers to rich businessmen, all felt the transformation from the old to the new. As the country began to change, farmers and businessmen would find new advantages to the growing connections and technology, while simultaneously encountering the consequential limitations. The life of an American farmer before The Gilded Age was a tough life. “Blizzards, tornadoes, grasshoppers, hailstorms, drought, …show more content…
With technology increasing nationwide, there came the advent of the railroads stretching off of the Union Pacific, reaching out and grasping land in every direction. To island communities lucky enough to gain a railroad, this brought a sense of connection and opportunity beyond anything they had ever seen. Population in these towns increased, new age innovations and machines became available, and the Sears catalog made rare and treasured items easily obtainable. “Steel plows, reapers, mowers, harrows, seed frills, combiners, and threshers replaced human muscle” (Roark p465), making the everyday life of an American farmer ever easier and significantly more efficient. This allowed for larger plots of land to be farmed and higher yields of crops. “A single combine could do the work of twenty men, vastly increasing acreage a farmer could cultivate” (Roark p465). With the railroad connection to the rest of the nation, farmers were able to move crops for sale more easily and widely. These technological and organizational innovations worked wonders for the farming community, however, they were not a