Fun Farm Facts
1776 to 1799
1776
Continental Congress offered land grants for service in the Continental Army
1790
Total population: 3,929,214
Farmers made up about 90% of labor force
1796
Public Land Act of 1796 authorized Federal land sales to the public in minimum 640-acre plots at $2 per acre of credit
1980, 1990
Total population: 227,020,000 and 246,081,000
Farm population: 6,051,00 and 4,591,000
Farmers made up 3.4% and 2.6% of labor force
Number of farms: 2,439,510 and 2,143,150
Average acres: 426 and 461
Irrigated acres: 50,350,000 (1978) and 46,386,000 (1987)
1980's
For the first time since the 19th century, foreigners (Europeans and Japanese primarily) began to purchase significant acreages of farmland and ranchland
1987
Farmland values bottomed out after a 6-year decline, signalling both a turnaround in the farm economy and increased competition with other countries' exports
1988
One of the worst droughts in the Nation's history hit midwestern