Why was the u. s. federal government reluctant to fund projects to improve public transport during the first decades of the nineteenth century?

Because during those times technology was not advanced enough and due to that, such projects required large amounts of workers and time that made their cost very high. Because of these reasons politicians considered that the economic benefits of such endeavors were unequal and uncertain.

it was on the rise and doing very well and would continue to do well until the great depression from 1929-1939

he was able to speed up production of the processing of seeds