A Tale of Three Towns: Local Conditions and the Commercialization of Farming in Nineteenth-Century New York, USA

Abstract The commercialization of agriculture in the nineteenth-century northern United States represents the foundational period for many rural American communities. It created the family-farm-as-business model that became the backbone of the agricultural economy for the next 100 years. However, it was not a monolithic movement. The timing, strategies, and causes varied between communities, and sometimes even between farms. Using archival, historical, and archaeological data, this work explores the interaction of community identities and values, environment, landscape, climate, and national economic trends in influencing when, how, and why farmers in Madison County, New York commercialized.