1. Farming the plains Chapter 13, Section 3
I will be able to identify the new ways of farming that developed in the West.
US.1 Explain patterns of agricultural and industrial development as they relate to climate, use of natural resources, markets and trade, the growth of major urban areas, and describe the geographic considerations that led to the location of specialized industries such as textiles, automobiles, and steel. (E, G)
Many saw the Plains “unfit for civilization” and “inhabitable for anyone depending on agriculture for their substance.” A few decades later w/ encouragement from the government, people began pouring into the Plains to build farms.

2. Morning Work August 2, 2016 1st period Agenda
Read primary source and answer questions.
Morning Work
Lecture: Farming the Plains
Primary Source: Black Codes: Why would African Americans migrate to the West?
America the Story of Us

3. Morning Work August 2, 2016 3rd/4th Period Agenda
Read primary source and answer questions.
Morning Work
Primary Source Activity: Homestead Act
Lecture: Farming the Plains
America the Story of Us
Review questions
3-2-1

4. Bell Ringer
“[Y]ou must make up your mind to see a very naked looking home at first nothing but the land covered with grass and a sod house to live in. [T]he prospect will no doubt look monotonous enough to you at first no fences (as none is needed) in sight but we have a soil rich as the richest river bottoms …[I]f we have health and luck we will have a beautiful home in a few years…all we have to do is plow up some sod (which will hang together for a half mile without breaking) cut in lengths to suit and lay up a wall & cover it and you have a house. [T]o one who never seen one … it would seem as though they were a dirty house but they are warmer & cleaner than…log cabins ever were. “
-Letter from Uriah W. Oblinger to Mattie V. Oblinger and Ella Oblinger, March 9, 1873

5. Incentives for Settlement
New Legislation
Homestead Act gave 160 acres of land to heads of household.
Pacific Railway Act gave land to RR companies to build railroad/telegraph lines
Morrill Act gave land to the states to provide colleges for agriculture/mechanic arts.
In 1862, Congress passed three acts to turn public lands into private property. The Homestead Act gave 160 acres of land to heads of household. Had to be over 21 yrs old. Each homesteader had to build a home on the land, make improvements, and farm the land for 5 years before being granted full ownership of the land by the government. Nearly 2 million people applied for land claims under this act. Most of the best land was claimed by 1900, but the last piece of land was received in 1988.
The Pacific Railway Act gave land to the railroad companies to build lines. The Morrill Act gave lands to states for colleges for agriculture and the mechanic arts.
Physical conditions on the frontier presented even greater challenges. Wind, blizzards, and plagues of insects threatened crops. Open plains meant few trees for building, forcing many to build homes out of sod. Limited fuel and water supplies could turn simple cooking and heating chores into difficult trials. Ironically, even the smaller size of sections took its own toll. While 160 acres may have been sufficient for an eastern farmer, it was simply not enough to sustain agriculture on the dry plains, and scarce natural vegetation made raising livestock on the prairie difficult. As a result, in many areas, the original homesteader did not stay on the land long enough to fulfill the claim

6. A&M: Agricultural and Mechanical

7. Incentives for Settlement
Railroads encourage settlement
Reaped profits by selling land
Oklahoma Land Run
April 22, 1889: 50,000 people rushed into the Oklahoma territory to stake their claim.
Railroads companies lured settlers to the West. Within a few years of the passage of the Pacific Railway Act, the federal government had given the railroads some 125 million acres of public land.
Railroads reaped profits by selling some of their land to settlers. They placed ads to lure homesteaders to the West.
BY the 1870s, treaties had resulted in the relocation of a number of Native American nations to Indian Territory (Oklahoma). In 1879 a Cherokee activist discovered that some 2 million acres in central Oklahoma had not been assigned to any nation. For 10 years settlers tried to move into these unassigned lands, despite presidential proclamation forbidding unlawful entry to Indian Territory. The Oklahoma Land Run of 1889 opened unassigned Indian land to settlers. Over 50,000 people took part in the rush to stake a claim on these 2 million acres of land. B/w 1899 and 1895, five different land runs brought countless settlers to live in Oklahoma. Not everyone who rushed there was fully prepared to settle. Some arrived with few provisions and no money. Many became discouraged and left once they realized they could not survive until the next years crops came in.
Cheating also occurred – those who slipped through the US Army lines along the territory's border to find the best plots before the race began were nicknamed ‘Sooners’.
In theory, the rush for land would be monitored by US troops, but there weren't enough at 12:00 when the signal was given for entry.
Men rushed to claim 160 acres of land. Would determine its range/township from the surveyors cornerstone markers/plant a stake bearing notice of his home/location.
Some would immediately begin making improvements (digging wells). Others would hurry to land office to register their claim.
Sometimes disputes over land would be decided at the Supreme Court.

9. Migrating West White settlers African Americans Fled the violent South
Benjamin Singleton
Fled the violent South
Rumors of land in Kansas brought 15,000 Exodusters.
After the Civil War, most of the people moving West belonged to one of 3 major groups: white Americans from East , African Americans from South, and immigrants from foreign countries.
Middle-class businesspeople or farmers from the Mississippi Valley moved west. They could afford money for supplies and transportation- wanted better life or no longer could tolerate the growing population.
Benjamin Singleton urged his own people to build communities. Some fled the violent South.
Singleton was born in 1809 in Nashville, Tennessee, where he was several times sold as a slave but always managed to escape. Eventually, he fled to Canada, then settled in Detroit, Michigan, where he ran a boardinghouse that frequently sheltered runaway slaves.
Rumors of land in Kansas brought 15,000 Exodusters who also settled in Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois. This rumor turned out to be false.
Those who followed Singleton’s advice (Exodusters) believed the West would be their promised land
Federal troops left the South in 1877 which led to segregation laws and violent attacks from groups like the KKK

11. Migrating West European Settlers Lured by economic opportunity
Lured by economic opportunity, they came from Scandinavia, Ireland, Russia, and Germany.
They brought their farming experience with them.
Many Russian Mennonites, a Protestant religious sect, brought their experience of farming the Russian steppes to the Great Plains.
In 1882 alone, 105,362 immigrants arrived from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.
In 1845: Irish potato famine
Initially came for the gold rush or to build railroads
They turned to farming, especially in California, establishing the fruit industry there.
Most Chinese were farm laborers because they were not allowed to own land.

12. Migrating West Chinese Settlers
Initially came for the gold rush or build railroads
Turned to farming
Turned to farming, especially in California, establishing the fruit industry there
Most were farm laborers because they were not allowed to own land

13. New Ways of Farming Harsh climates, scarce water, & lack of lumber
Farmers used the earth for shelter
dugouts in the hillsides
sod houses
The journey west was expensive and full of hardships. Once farmers staked a new claim on a homestead, they faced new challenges. New farmers faced harsh climate, scarce water, and lack of lumber.
CLIMATE: Winters could be bitterly cold as snow storms rushed down from Canada. Summers were fiercely hot causing crops to shrivel and die. WATER: Farmers installed windmill-driven pumps and used irrigation techniques. They used the earth for shelter, first building dugouts into hillsides, then making sod houses.
Weather: bitterly cold winters, extremely hot summers, dust storms, droughts, grasshopper plagues, and prairie fires
LIVING CONDTIONS:
Windmill driven pumps go down 120 feet deep to get water
Sod houses were dirty, drafty/ leaked rain
Invested with lice- mud fell off in cooking pots
MEDICINE: manure for snake bites, ate roasted mice for measles, pouring worm urine into ear for earache
FUEL: buffalo chips
New farming equipment helped. James Oliver developed a sharper plow edge. Combine harvesters used one operation to cut wheat, separate grains, and remove the husks.

14. New Ways of Farming New farming equipment
James Oliver developed a sharper plow
One new farming method, called dry farming, was to plant seeds deep in the ground, where there was enough moisture for them to grow. By the 1860s, Plains farmers were using steel plows, threshing machines, seed drills, and reapers. These new machines made dry farming possible. Still, soil on the Plains could blow away during a dry season. Many sodbusters, as those who plowed the Plains were called, eventually lost their homesteads through the combined effects of drought, wind erosion, and overuse of the land.
Large landholders could buy mechanical reapers and steam tractors that made it easier to harvest a large crop. Threshing machines knocked kernels loose from the stalks. Mechanical binders tied the stalks into bundles for collection. These innovations were well suited for harvesting wheat, a crop that could endure the dry conditions of the Plains.
During the 1880s, many farmers from the states of the old Northwest Territory moved to the Great Plains to take advantage of the inexpensive land and new technology. The Wheat Belt began at the eastern edge of the Great Plains and covered much of the Dakotas and parts of Nebraska and Kansas. The new machines allowed a family to bring in a substantial harvest on a wheat farm of several hundred acres. Some wheat farms covered up to 65,000 acres. These were called bonanza farms because they yielded big profits. Like mine owners, bonanza farmers formed companies, invested in property and equipment, and hired laborers as needed.

15. New Ways of Farming

16. New Ways of Farming Giant bonanza farms Operated like factories
Reaped great profits during good seasons.
Could not handle the boom-and-bust farming cycles well, and by the 1890s, most bonanza farms had been broken up.
Giant bonanza farms operated like factories, with expensive machinery, professional managers, and laborers. They reaped great profits during good seasons. However, they could not handle the boom-and-bust farming cycles well, and by the 1890s, most bonanza farms had been broken up.

17. 3-2-1 3 acts passed by the government in 1862
2 groups of people that came to the West
1 African American who encouraged African Americans to migrate west

18. August 1, 2016 Introduction Fill out information sheet Syllabus
Brainstorm: What don’t you like about history?
Video- Why Study History?
10 Reasons to Study History- Prezi
Discuss why history is important
Brainstorm: What do you think is cool about history?
Video: Open Letter to Students Returning to School

19. What don’t you like about history?
Brainstorm
What don’t you like about history?
What do you think is cool about history?

20. Why Study History?

21. Why Study History Why Study History?
Open Letter to Students Returning to School

22. Unbroken

23. Unbroken What is your dream? What are two goals for this semester?
What is your game plan for accomplishing your dream and your goals?