He needed more capital and more machinery.
He had to borrow money and make shrewd business calculations.

From every standpoint his economic environment had become more complicated and more extended, and his success depended much more upon conditions which were beyond his control.

He never was a pioneer in the sense that the early inhabitants of the Middle West and South had been pioneers; and he has never exercised any corresponding influence upon the American national temper.

The pioneer had enjoyed his day, and his day was over.

The Jack-of-all-trades no longer possessed an important economic function.
The average farmer was, of course, still obliged to be many kinds of a rough mechanic, but for the most part he was nothing more than a farmer.
Unskilled labor began to mean labor which was insignificant and badly paid.