Cultivating Machines: The Use and Maintenance of Technology in Midwestern Agriculture, 1845–1900

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James Rick

Cultivating Machines

The Use and Maintenance of Technology in Midwestern Agriculture, 1845–1900

James Rick

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English

Ohio University Press
21 October 2025

History of the Americas; Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900; History of engineering & technology; Mechanical engineering; Agricultural engineering & machinery

Series: New Approaches to Midwestern Studies

How farmers shaped the development of agricultural machinery

Throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, farmers in the midwestern United States and in Ontario began adopting new agricultural machines: threshers, reapers, and drills for more efficient production of grains, as well as sewing and washing machines for more efficient production within the farm household. By using, maintaining, and altering these machines within the natural and social contexts of their farms, rural people produced new technological systems of industrial agriculture. They also struggled with machine manufacturers and their agents for control of those systems-both individually and through farmers’ organizations. Cultivating Machines contributes to historiographies of capitalism, technology, and agriculture as it demonstrates the importance of everyday know-how and informed tinkering to the mechanization of grain agriculture.

In this study, James Rick moves from the middle decades of the nineteenth century, and the introduction of horse-powered machines, to the end of the century, when mechanized technologies became indispensable and central parts of farms themselves. Ultimately, large-scale wheat production, the increased complexity of machines, the need for replacement parts, and the efforts of manufacturers and their agents to assert themselves as authorities over industrial agriculture diminished the technological independence of farming people.

By: James Rick
Imprint: Ohio University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9780821426593
ISBN 10: 0821426591
Series: New Approaches to Midwestern Studies
Pages: 284
Publication Date: 21 October 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Further / Higher Education , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

James Rick is a scholar of the nineteenth-century United States with particular interest in the histories of agriculture, technology, and the Midwest. He received his PhD in history from William & Mary and teaches in the social studies department at St. John's College High School in Washington, DC.