1. Chapter 13, Section 4 Farming in the West p.469-473
Many western settlers take up farming, but their lives are hard and their challenges many.

2. Nebraska Homesteader Family 1880 Notice what the house is made of?...
Homesteading
Main Idea: Would-be settlers can get a homestead from the government or land from railroad companies.
Homestead Act of 1862: offers 160-acre plot to anyone who would live on and farm the land for 5 years
Homesteaders: settlers acquire FREE land from the government
1st homesteaders settle on the Great Plains
Railroads help bring settlers into the Great Plains
Railroad can also ship the farmers’ crops quickly to market.
Nebraska Homesteader Family 1880
Notice what the house is made of?...

3. A Hard Life on the Plains
Main Idea: New techniques and inventions help settlers adapt to the difficult life on the Plains.
sod - the surface layer of earth where grass roots tangle with the soil
Sometimes used to build houses
Sodbuster - plains farmers
John Deere invents steel plow
Joseph Glidden invents barbed wire
Protects farmers land from open range cattle and sheep
John Deere
Joseph Glidden

4. Who would pay for this 1877 advertisement?
Farmers of the Plains
Farm families: everyone helps
Men work from dawn ‘til dusk
Children tend farm animals and do household chores
Women help in the fields, educate the children, sew, preserve food, make candles & soap...
Exodusters: African Americans who settle on the Great Plains
Believe they are like the Jews in the book of Exodus, fleeing Egypt
Spanish Southwest: Spanish speaking farmers and sheep- herders (ricos) fight to keep their land
Who would pay for this 1877 advertisement?

5. A Last Rush for Land
Main Idea: A rush for land in Oklahoma in 1889 signals the closing of the western frontier.
Boomers: 100,000 homesteaders claim 2 million acres of Indian Territory (Oklahoma)
“Oklahoma Land Rush”
Sooners - people who snuck onto the land early & hid
Frontier officially closes when the 1890 census reports “no more free land” to homestead
Oklahoma Land Rush 1889

6. William Jennings Bryan
Farmers Organize
Main Idea: Facing an economic crisis, farmers form groups like the National Grange and the Populist Party.
Lower grain prices force many farmers into bankruptcy
granges - groups of farmers who met for lectures, sewing bees, & other events
farm cooperatives - groups of farmers who pool their money to make large purchases of tools, seeds, and other supplies at a discount
Inflation: general rise in prices causes farm cooperatives
William Jennings Bryan runs for president in 1896
Populist idea of using silver to raise the price of farm crops
William Jennings Bryan
“The Great Commoner”

7. The gold standard? How would inflation benefit (be good for) farmers?
Table Question:
How would inflation benefit (be good for) farmers?
The gold standard?