Farming On The Plains – By Mr. Bruce Diehl

I. Geography of the Plains A.The Great Plains 1.It officially begins at the 100th meridian a line running north and south from the central Dakotas through Abilene, Texas. 2.It Extends westward to the Rocky Mountains.

3.Rainfall on the Great Plains averages less than 20 inches per year. 4.Trees only grow naturally along rivers and streams and on hilltops. 5.Huge herds of buffalo once grazed on the prairies grasses of the Great Plains.

B.Great American Desert? 1.Major Stephen Long explored the Great Plains with an army expedition in Long called this area “Great American Desert” and said it was almost entirely unfit for farming.

II. The Beginnings of Settlement A.Railroads eventually provided easy access to the Great Plains. 1.Railroad companies sold land along the rail lines at low prices and provided credit. 2.The promoted towns and development along the lines

B.The federal government helped settle the Great Plains by passing the Homestead Act in For $10, a settler could file for a homestead, or a tract of public land available for settlement. 2.The homesteader could get up to 160 acres of public land and could receive title of it after living there five years.

C.Settlers on the Plains found adjusting to the environment very difficult. 1.Summer temperatures soared over 100  F 2.Winter brought blizzards and extreme cold.

3.Prairie fires and swarms of grasshoppers were a danger and a threat. 4.They adapted to the environment by getting water from deep wells 5.Farmers build homes of sod and burned buffalo chips for heat. 6.Sometimes it took years to receive supplies and building materials that railroads could ship.

III. The Wheat Belt A.Sodbusters – 1.Farmers who plowed the soil on the Great Plains were called sodbusters. 2.Many of them lost their homesteads because of drought, wind erosion, and overuse of the land.

B.Many inventions and new farming methods made farming on the wheat Plains very profitable. 1.Farmers on the Great Plains used the dry farming method planting seeds deep in the ground where there was enough moisture for them to grow.

2.By the 1860’s, farmers on the Great Plains were using newly designed steel plows, seed drills, reapers, and threshing machines. 3.These machines made dry farming possible. 4.Farmers could work large tracts of land with machines. 5.During the 1860’s and 1870’s, new technology, such as the mechanical reapers and binders and threshing machine, made farming more profitable. 6.The innovations were also well suited for harvesting wheat.

C.Wheat 1.Wheat withstood drought better than other crops 2.Wheat became the most important crop in the Great Plains. 3.Wheat farmers from Minnesota and other Midwestern states moved to the Great Plains in large numbers to take advantage of the inexpensive land and the new farming technology. 4.The Wheat Belt began at the eastern edge of the Great Plains and included much of the Dakotas and the western parts of Nebraska and Kansas.

D.Bonanza Farms 1.Some wheat farms, called bonanza farms, were much larger than single-family farms and covered up to 50,000 acres. 2.These farms often brought the owners large profits.

E.Several events caused Great Plains farmers to fall on hard times. 1.In the 1890’s, a glut of wheat caused prices to drop. 2.Some farmers lost their land because they could not repay banks loans they had taken out. 3.A prolonged drought that began in the 1880s forced many farmers to return to the East.

IV. Closing the Frontier A.In 1890 the Census Bureau reported that the frontier was closing. B.This news concerned those who believed that land at the frontier provided a place for Americans to make a fresh start. C.Frederick Jackson Turner - The Frontier Thesis