Agriculture and Ethnic Diversity

An Ethnically Diverse Pursuit

But agriculture has always been an ethnically diverse pursuit in the United States. In the colonial and early national eras, when family-owned farms were the norm, distinct styles of farming were practiced by the various western European immigrant groups that constituted the population. Northern Irish families tended to grow corn, which they would use both to feed hogs and to feed the family; cornmeal and grits quickly became staple foods in the south, especially outside the rice country of the Carolinas. After butchering, hogs would be smoked or cured to preserve the meat through the winter. The practice of using small fish to fertilize corn was introduced to New Englanders by local Native Americans and sometimes employed farther south. German American families, on the other hand, often grew wheat, barley, or other grains, and traditionally relied on oxen as their work animals.

As the country expanded westward after independence, waves of immigration provided the manual labor and sheer numbers necessary to turn wilderness into settled lands. Some of those hired to build the railroads, famously including numerous Chinese immigrants, who later settled down as farmers after the rails were complete. The Northern Irish tradition of raising corn and hogs together was transmitted through the midwest, in which southerners constituted a large part of the settlers, while the “wheat frontier” passed westward at the northern latitudes. The cattle capital of the country shifted from New England to Texas and Kansas as the country expanded, with those new territories building strong industries based on beef, usually by English, Irish, and German Americans (with numerous Hispanic American workers). However, dairy farming remained a prominent industry in New England until the federal farm buyouts of the 1980s.

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