2. Chapter 2 Lesson 2
Farming the Plains

3. Farming
Government Support for Settlement
Homestead Act – U.S. Gov’t offered land (160 acres) to heads of families
from over 600,000 families took advantage of land (Homesteaders)
Exodusters – Blacks leaving the South after the Civil War to move to Kansas
Land giveaway in 1889 – Oklahoma land grab, settlers claimed more than 2 million acres. Some folks claimed land sooner than was allowed – “Sooner” state (Oklahoma)

4. Farming Settlers meet challenges on the plains
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 universities
Hatch Act (1887) – farming experiment stations
Developments in farming techniques allowed the dry plains region to become America’s “breadbasket”
Technology improves
John Deere’s plow
Cyrus McCormick’s reaper
Barbed wire fences
Dry Farming methods
Farmers 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 farms
Tried to make money off one crop
Smaller farms could diversify crops
Drought runs big farms out of business
Railroad companies put farmers further into debt
High prices to ship from the West
Lack of competition
Settlers meet challenges on the plains
Surviving on the prairie
Farmers in debt
* farmers must come together to defend rights

5. Homesteads from Public Lands

6. “Rain follows the Plow”

7. Settling the West Homesteading Myth Homesteading Reality
“Soddy” – Sod house in SD

8. Farming “PRAIRIE FA N” (Water Pump) Technology tames the prairie
“Sod Buster” (Steel Plow)

9. Closing the Frontier The Frontier Ends
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 destination

10. Frontier Settlement (1870-1890)
Frederick Jackson Turner – The Significance of the Frontier on American Society