SOCIAL ORIGINS OF INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE - FARM DYNAMICS IN CALIFORNIA PERIOD OF AGRICULTURAL NASCENCE

In the period 1870-1910 world agriculture underwent a global reorganis ation, and California's Central Valley was drawn into expanding world commodities and labour markers. Unlike the rest of North America, Cali fornia's response to world demand for food drew heavily on wage labour . The availability of disadvantaged labour in California allowed the e arly divergence from national patterns of agricultural development Thi s article employs a twofold comparative strategy to examine the dynami c character of California's agricultural sector in this period. First, encompassing comparison contrasts California's agriculture to the Nor th American plains and identifies the divergent impact of very similar world-market forces. Second, panel modeling of aggregate county-level data reveals patterns of change within California's agricultural econ omy over four decades. Simultaneously modelling changes in the odds of three classes of farms over four decades reveals two dynamic farming sectors with distinct developmental trajectories. The first. is based on intensive farming and family labour: The second is based on extensi ve cropping and wage labour. Both respond differently to the presence of disadvantaged labour.