My America-Chapter 58 - :Farmers

Who asked Europe to be so powerful? Naturally, they could create stereotypes for people of other countries; this wasn't anything new. At the national level, the United States could snag the title of a "knock-off empire," and at the citizen level, they could manage to be seen as "foolishly wealthy," which wasn't bad. Imperial Russia in Europe was more of a special case, forever wavering on the path of whether or not it was truly European.

When Russia was really powerful, Europeans considered it one of their own, an indispensable and important link in maintaining order. If Russia wasn't so strong, Russians could very well become Asians at any moment. Snobbery and belittlement – that's just how real things were.

Even Little Rockefeller's sister admired the life of European aristocracy. This kind of influence brought about by national power was inescapable even for the families of America's wealthiest, let alone ordinary people.

This was nothing new. In Hollywood movies, people of Asian descent were often portrayed as taciturn and duplicitous. And in the minds of some people in the Republic, Southeast Asians were always monkeys.

No one was any better than anyone else; the difference was only in national strength, and had little to do with individual quality.

When leaving the Rockefeller estate, Little Rockefeller came out to see them off. Although the two hadn't finalized any specific cooperation, a good attitude was a good start. Besides, it wasn't something they could decide on a whim.

Matters concerning future profit sharing, which areas to cooperate in, and which areas to keep their distance, all required professional management teams to work out the details.

"Your American tycoons really know how to enjoy life!" After leaving the Rockefeller estate, Annie linked her arm with Sheffield's, murmuring dreamily. "Just one day in America and we've already met the richest man in America. It's like a dream. The richest man's sister married someone in Chicago. What kind of city is Chicago? Is it beautiful?"

"It's about the same as the Ruhr region!" Sheffield glanced at the girl's pretty face and opened his mouth with a playful tone, "If you don't mind the environment there, I can take you for a visit."

Chicago was a region leading in steel industry, machinery manufacturing, agricultural technology, trade, cultural education, and other aspects.

Chicago's industry was mainly based on steel, metals, food processing, electronics, oil processing, printing, and transportation machinery and equipment industries, among which the steel industry ranked first in the United States.

Just by looking at these industries, you could tell that the vast majority belonged to heavily polluting sectors. The Great Lakes were deeply harmed, and along with the Mississippi River, accumulated massive amounts of heavy metals.

It wasn't until the Cold War era that dedicated governance began. However, even then, they could only manage some superficial work. The Great Lakes and the Mississippi River had long been dumping grounds for a century of industrial waste, resulting in sediment rich in heavy metals.

This was how carp were introduced to America—the US hoped carp would act as cleaners to manage the pollution.However, the story of the hero becoming a dragon repeated itself, and carp began to proliferate uncontrollably in North America.

Although Chicago was the steel center of the United States and had the convenience of treating the Great Lakes and Mississippi River as landfills, it was not on Sheffield's itinerary. Based on the principle of picking the softest persimmon first, he would not, at this stage, clash with any "Big King" or "Great King."

Instead, he planned to first cultivate his internal strength, starting from the periphery, cleaning up the smaller fry first. Once other interferences were gone, he would attempt to build up strength for a major breakthrough.Even if he aimed for industry giants, he would still start by developing smaller industries.

He would begin with industries related to agriculture and then gradually encroach and expand. Machinery was certainly very important, but the foothold would still be agricultural machinery.Chicago actually had a very powerful presence in the field of agricultural machinery, which was Little Rockefeller's brother-in-law's company, the International Harvester Company, which had already received investment from Rockefeller.

The American South and plantation owners were reborn because of the cotton gin, while the harvester made great progress in Northern agriculture. At the time, the key obstacle to the commercialization of agriculture south of the Ohio River was that a farmer could harvest at most half an acre of wheat per day.

The wheat growing cycle was also very unfavorable to farmers. Wheat could ripen in two weeks or suddenly overripen and fall to the ground, completely shedding its heads within two days. Farmers were troubled by harvesting every year.

Mr. McCormick's invention, the harvester, was equipped with a ground wheel-driven cutter, a reel, and a grain-collecting platform. It could not only cut down wheat but also automatically organize the cut wheat and neatly stack it on the workbench behind, harvesting three times faster than manual labor.

Later, McCormick came to Chicago. He built a factory in Chicago on the north bank of the Chicago River, a place very convenient for railway transportation and water use, which later became the International Harvester Company.

However, Sheffield did not need to cooperate with them. He only needed to build a factory to start production. The reason was simple: the relevant patents for harvesters had long expired. You had to know that it had been more than fifty years since the harvester appeared, and no law would protect a patent term for such a long time.

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Currently, Sheffield was still preparing to base himself on his family's core, which was agriculture. At the same time, this was also the agricultural empire concept that the Democratic Party had always advocated, and this could not be separated from various agricultural machinery.

Among them, tractors were the most important machinery.When the United States later dominated the world, among its most unbreakable hegemonic powers, its strong agricultural hegemony was even more solid than its industry.

After all, there were countries that approached or even exceeded the scale of the United States' industry, but no country could match it in agriculture. This was because the Republic had a huge population, and agriculture could only guarantee self-sufficiency, and they couldn't be expected to do more.

Russia, on the other hand, was vast and sparsely populated, and located in a cold zone, making it unable to challenge the United States in agriculture. As for Brazil? This country's industry was too backward.

Compared to the strength of both industry and agriculture in the United States, other countries were more or less handicapped in some aspect.

Forty years ago, a Frenchman, Arbalète, invented the earliest steam-powered tractor. Small-scale steam engines appeared, which were installed on vehicle chassis to drive the wheels, enabling them to drive from the headland into the fields to directly pull farm implements. This was how tractors were born.As for tractors powered by internal combustion engines, they had only appeared a few years ago.

It wasn't too late for Sheffield to enter this field now. Moreover, he had German internal combustion engine patents.

Geographically, Texas had oil reserves. Technically and fuel-wise, there was no need to worry. With Rockefeller's assistance, he was very confident in crushing his opponents.

After entering Texas, the vast livestock and endless grasslands and farmland captivated Annie's eyes. She couldn't help but sigh, "It's so beautiful."

(End of Chapter)