Chapter 18Lesson 4 – Ranching & Farming

Objectives:• Identify the Cattle Kingdom.• Explain why the cattle boom ended.• Identify the Exodusters.• Identify the hardships that farmers

faced on the Plains.

Driving Cattle to Market

• Longhorns – large herds of wild cattle

• Spanish & Mexicans set up cattle ranches in the Southwest.

• Railroads enabled ranchers to get these cattle to markets.

• Demand for beef increased, couldn’t depend on buffalo.

Cattle Drives• Texas ranchers began rounding up cattle

in 1860s.

• Drove them west to KS & MO in spring.

• Chisholm Trail – made by Jesse Chisholm

The Cowhand’s Life

• Vaqueros – skilled riders/cowboys who tended cattle on ranches (Spanish)

• Lariat – leather rope

• Sombrero – wide-rimmed hats

• Chaps – leather leggings

• Chaparral – thorny bush

• Dangers?– Stampedes, hot & tiring, crossing rivers

The Cattle Boom

• Grew up in the west, 1870s.• Stretched from TX – MT• Cattle roamed freely; rounded up twice a year to

brand new calves.

• Farmers began arriving – began fencing their land to keep cattle out– Open range disappeared.– Harsh winters of ’85, ’86 – 9 of 10 cattle frozen to death.

Farmers on the Plains

• Homestead Act – gov. gave 160 acres of land to anyone who would farm it for 5 years. (1862)

– Big land-owning companies took large areas of land illegally.

• Sold it to farmers for high prices.

• Exodusters – African Americans who moved to KS – South tried to prevent them from leaving

• Stopped their boats on the MS river.• 40,000-70,000 made it to KS by 1881.

SodhousesDry summers (fires & grasshoppers)

Bitterly cold winters

New Farm Tools

• Sodbusters – Plains farmers

• James Oliver – plow

• Seed drills, reapers, threshing machines, binders, windmills

Women on the Plains

• Women made clothing, quilts, soap, candles, etc. by hand.

• Educated children, treated the sick/injured, helped with planting/harvesting.

• Lived miles apart.

End of the Frontier

• Last major land rush – OK, 1889

• Indians have been moved there, but gov. bought the land back in 1885.

• “Sooners” snuck into OK and staked out the best land.