Agricultural Revolution in Wheat
Industrial Capitalism changed the production, processing, marketing of wheat, the leading sector in northern agriculture.
Production
- 1834 patent for reaper by Cyrus McCormick
- 1848 Chicago factory, like John Deere in Moline
- mass production, specialized labor, $115 price for $65 cost
- sales agents, dealerships, credit
- by 1865, 3/4 of all farms 100+ acres had reaper
- harvesters for "bonanza farms" of the Plains
Processing
- Minnesota territory (1849) and state (1858), but winters killed soft white winter wheat - read spring wheat from better but hard
- Cadwallader Washburn built water power mill at Falls of St. Anthony for the Minneapolis Mill Co. of 1856, hired manager George Christian
- 1856 Dauglish patent for carbonic acid method of con't process
- 1871 middlings purifier of Edmund La Croix - air blew bran out sieves
- flour dust explosion 1878 caused new mill design by William de la Barre from Austria with inventions seen at Philadelphia Centennial: ventilator of Gustav Behrn, Hungarian rollers improved with steel
- "patent flour" won gold medal at 1880 Millers' International Exposition in Cincinnati - Washburn changed label to "Gold Medal Flour"
- would merge in 1926 with Austin Sperry and Horace Davis mills in Calif
Marketing
- river town warehouse owners bought wheat from local farmers until RR
- railroads built elevators but mixed grades of wheat, charged farmers high hauling rates and paid farmers low prices during harvest season
- Minneapolis Millers Association 1869 - pool of 18 buyers able to deal with railroads, send sales agents abroad, buy futures in Chicago BT
- millers became middlemen between farmer and consumer
- advertising, trademarks, Betty Crocker since 1921
- Big 3: Kellogg, General Mills, Post
Revised 2/1/03 by Schoenherr