An Overview of California Agricultural Mechanization, 1870-1930

Today California is by far the nation's leading agricultural state, accounting for roughly 10 percent of the total value of the agricultural output produced in the United States. No other region can boast its superb combination of climate, soils, institutions, and highly educated farmers. In the nineteenth century this advantageous mixture of agricultural inputs transformed California from a frontier society in 1860 into a virtual cornucopia by 1900. A hallmark of California agriculture has been its highly mechanized farms. Nineteenth-century observers watched in awe as cumbersome steam tractors and giant combines worked their way across vast fields. In the twentieth century California farmers led the nation in the adoption of gasoline tractors, mechanical cotton pickers, tomato harvesters, and dozens of less well-known machines. This paper will analyze the evolution of mechanization on California farms emphasizing developments in power sources and in the mechanization of small grain production. We argue that California's distinctive role as an innovator and early user of new technologies represented a rational response by the state's farmers and mechanics to the area's peculiar economic and geographical conditions. In addition, we argue that there was a dynamic process whereby early innovations paved the way for subsequent developments. First, we will show that many innovations were complementary in that the extra horsepower acquired to power one device was avail-