Farming the Plains Farming Government Support for Settlement Homestead Act US Govt offered land 160 acres to heads of families from 18621900 over 600000 families took advantage of land Homesteaders ID: 406545
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Chapter 2 Lesson 2
Farming the PlainsSlide3
Farming
Government Support for Settlement
Homestead Act
– U.S.
Gov’t
offered land (160 acres) to heads of families
from 1862-1900 over 600,000 families took advantage of land (Homesteaders)Exodusters – Blacks leaving the South after the Civil War to move to KansasLand giveaway in 1889 – Oklahoma land grab, settlers claimed more than 2 million acres. Some folks claimed land sooner than was allowed – “Sooner” state (Oklahoma)Slide4
Farming
Settlers meet challenges on the plains
Surviving on the prairie
Farmers in debt
* farmers must come together to defend rights
Dwellings – settlers used the earth to make homes, digging into the hillside (dugouts)
Soddy houses built out of mud and sod
provided adequate shelter from the dramatic climate (cool in summer, warm in winter)
Women had to work just as hard as men
Agricultural education was important
The Morrill Act (1862)– land grant universitiesHatch Act (1887) – farming experiment stationsDevelopments in farming techniques allowed the dry plains region to become America’s “breadbasket”Technology improvesJohn Deere’s plowCyrus McCormick’s reaperBarbed wire fences Dry Farming methodsFarmers had to take loans to get started (machinery, land, seed)Market prices determined farmer’s success (prices high=repay loans; low prices=more debt)Bonanza Farms – huge, single crop farmsTried to make money off one cropSmaller farms could diversify cropsDrought runs big farms out of businessRailroad companies put farmers further into debtHigh prices to ship from the WestLack of competition Slide5
Homesteads from Public LandsSlide6
“Rain follows the Plow”Slide7
Homesteading Myth
Homesteading Reality
Settling the West
“Soddy” – Sod house in SDSlide8
Farming
Technology tames the prairie
“PRAIRIE FA N” (Water Pump)
“Sod Buster” (Steel Plow)Slide9
Closing the Frontier
Frederick Jackson Turner –
The Significance of the Frontier on American Society
The Frontier Ends
The U.S. loses its frontier – Unique American characteristic gone
(Frontier = territory uninhabited by white settlers)
1st National Park – Yellowstone National Park (1872). Tourist destinationSlide10
Frontier Settlement (1870-1890)
Frederick Jackson Turner –
The Significance of the Frontier on American Society