In the late 1880s and 1890s. when foreign competition first crowded the American farmer on the European market. the farmers were hit by falling prices and rose in what is known as the Populist revolt. When populism passed the situation was eased until 1920. Heavy immigration and rapid industrial growth made for less dependence on the world market. farm prices rose and the disappearance of the free land of the West brought a pressure on the land that kept land values steadily mounting. The World War added a bubble of unsound prosperity. but the war also reversed the trend of farm exports and made the farmer again dependent on a world market. Acreage increased by 9 percent between 1910 and 1920. and much land put under production under the stimulus of wartime prices was clearly submarginal.
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immigration