Final answer:
The introduction of technology during the Industrial Revolution led to larger farm sizes and more efficient agriculture, pushing out small farmers and changing demographic trends. Technological advancements supported the growth of large-scale, efficient commercial farming operations, while smallholder farms have decreased in number and size.
Step-by-step explanation:
Trends in Farm Size Over Time
The trend in farm size has seen significant changes with the introduction of advanced technology. The Industrial Revolution was a pivotal moment that led to the use of gasoline-powered tools such as tractors, seed drills, threshers, and combine harvesters, dramatically changing agricultural practices. This technology allowed for farming on a larger scale, shifting the practice from subsistence to a more capitalist, profit-driven agriculture. With this change, farms have increased in size since this technology could cater to extensive land cultivation more effectively than manual labor.
However, this shift also meant that small farms found it challenging to compete due to the high cost of technology, leading to a decrease in the number of farms and an increase in the average size of remaining farms. As farms grew and agriculture became more efficient, fewer workers were needed, resulting in a demographic shift from rural to urban areas, and altering economic and social landscapes.
In recent times, while the analogy of electricity and tire production with agriculture might suggest possible moves to smaller production scales due to new technologies, the general trend in agriculture has been towards larger farming operations. This has been driven by economies of scale, improved transportation, and the ability to manage larger operations efficiently, often at the detriment of smallholder farms. As a result, large-scale commercial farms have become increasingly prevalent.