Farming the Great Plains (4.3)

1. Farming the Great Plains (4.3) 2 (e-g): The key concepts of continuity and change, cause and effect, complexity, unity and diversity over time

2. 1st Impression of Great Plains • Stephen Long: “Great American Desert” • Uninhabitable & an “obstacle in settling the country”

3. Map of Great Plains

4. Factors that allowed for development of the Great Plains • 1) Expansion/construction of Railroads • sold land along tracks @ low prices to settlers • Provided credit to settlers to encourage settlement • Distributed pamphlets & posters throughout Eastern US & Europe to encourage settlement

5. Factors for development of the Great Plains (cont.) • 2) Change in climate/weather patterns • Belief : “rain follows the plow”: cultivating the Great Plains would increase rainfall amts. • 1870s-1880s: rainfall totals above average

6. Factors for development of the Great Plains (cont.) • Above average rainfall + green vegetation seemed to contradict theory that Great Plains a desert

7. Factors for development of the Great Plains (cont.) • 3) Homestead Act (1862) • Homestead: tract of public land available for settlement • Provisions of Act: • 1. Had to pay $10 registration fee + $2 commission = acquisition of 160 Acres

8. Homestead Act (cont.) • 2. Live on land for 5 years + improve land (i.e. build a house, cultivate land) = land title • effect: cheap land ($1.25 per acre) = more settlers

9. Status Check #1 • What name did the first explorers of the Great Plains give the area? • A) Great American Desert • B) Wheat Belt • C) Unfit Frontier • D) Indian Territory

10. Status check #2 • The Homestead Act • A) Allowed RR companies to sell large tracts of land to settlers • B) Allowed settlers to buy large tracts of land from the Federal Government • C) Required settlers to purchase up to 150 acres • D) Required settlers to live on the land for 2 years

11. Challenges Faced by homesteaders • 1) Few trees • Had to use sod to build homes • 2) little water • Had to dig 100+ft deep wells and pump out water by hand • 3) little food • Had to eat both vegetables + weeds from garden

12. Challenges Faced by homesteaders (cont.) • 4) Extreme temperatures • 100 degrees + during the summer • -60 degrees (w/ wind chill) + blizzards during the winter • 5) Prairie Fires • Cause: lighting strikes • w/ geography primarily grass, fires would become large and spread quickly

13. Challenges Faced by homesteaders (cont.) • 6) Grasshoppers • Huge swarms (large/thick enough to block out the sun) would eat all crops & vegetation

14. Status Check #3 • Which of the following was NOT a challenge faced by homesteaders? • A) little water • B) Extreme temperatures • C) Abundant trees • D) Insects

15. New Farming Methods & Inventions • 1) Dry Farming - plant seeds deep in the ground (closer to moisture) • 2) Farming inventions/technology - steel bladed plows - seed drills - mechanical reapers - threshing machines

16. New farming Inventions

17. New Farming Methods & Inventions (cont.) • New inventions/technology made it possible to: • 1) Significantly increase size of fields • 1K + acres • 2) significantly increase amt of crop harvested (e.g. Corn & Wheat)

18. Status check #4 • Dry farming is a method of farming in which • A) Seeds are tossed on the ground and left to grow • B) Irrigation is used • C) Seeds are planted deep in the ground to be close to moisture • D) All of the above

19. Wheat: the cash crop of the Great Plains • Wheat found to be well suited to climate & geography of the Great Plains • Upper Great Plains (ND, SD, NE, & KS) became known as Wheat Belt • Wheat farms over 50k acres: Bonanza Farms (operated like companies)

20. Effects of farming on the Great Plains: Environmental Damage • Sodbusters: farmers who plowed the Great Plains • Climate (dry + windy) and over-use of the land caused extensive erosion/ loss of top soil • Result: Farmers lost homestead and forced to leave

21. Effects of Farming on the Great Plains: Environmental Damage

22. Effects of farming on the Great Plains: Over-production • 1880s: US becomes world’s leading exporter of wheat • 1890s: Increase in competition from farmers in other countries • Result: oversupply of wheat caused prices to drop & farmers to mortgage homesteads

23. Effects of the development of the Great Plains • 1) Change in geography • Well water allowed settlers to plant trees and gardens • 2) RRs + new materials/good • Brought lumber & brick to replace sod for building material • Brought coal + manufactured goods

24. Effects of the development of the Great Plains (cont.) • 3) New economic growth for US + citizens • Settlers raised crops (e.g. wheat) & livestock (e.g. cattle) which helped grow the US economy

25. “Closing the Frontier” • 1890: “no longer a true frontier left in US” – US Census Bureau • Many Americans worried no place left to make a fresh start/new life

26. Status Check #5 • In what way did settlement affect the Great Plains? • A) Provided new economic growth the United States • B) Changed the geographic landscape of the region • C) Led to environmental damage (e.g. loss of top soil) • D) All of the above