variability due to the pattern of prices that was influenced by the railroad network that linked the states. Although, there is evidence that the drop in transportation costs caused farmers with suitable soils to diversify their crops in order to take advantage of relative farm gate prices. This volatility in prices was compounded by a post bellum shift into monocultures. Farmers that once relied on diversified farming found it profitable to produce only one crop for market sale. This was especially apparent in the South as farmers shifted away from diversified corn and cotton portfolios into solely cotton. Commercialization Commercialization was a main component behind agrarian unrest. During this time, farmers engaged in the market production as the relative profitability increased. The purchase of agricultural inputs and goods that were formerly home-produced was acquired with credit. Farmers had to sell their produce at market and subsequently were enveloped in the commercial market system. Thus, the farmer was forced into paying for transportation and credit in order to sell his produce at a high enough price so that he could pay for his inputs. The farmer also now had to judge himself by success of being a businessman and not just a farmer. It has also been noted that the farmers were upset at their depreciating status in society. While they were once a majority voice in the United States, they were now a minority due to the continued industrialization and urbanization of the nation. Social movements The unrest enabled many movements to appear on the political scene. The largest were the Grange, Greenback, and Populist movements. The Grange movement, which was organized in 1867, focused primarily on regulating railroads, grain elevators, and other middlemen and monopolies that they thought were taking advantage of the farmer. The most active states for the Grange movement were Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The Greenback movement peaked in the late 1870s; it campaigned for: higher agricultural prices, against the gold standard, and for a general increase in prices. The states with the most Greenback activity, as a form of agrarian unrest, were Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Wisconsin. The Populist Party, which was formed in the 1890s, which were most active in Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas, was a short lived party that campaigned on the regulation of businesses, transportation charges, and monetary issues. See also Farmers' movement History of agriculture in the United States