Farming the Great Plains

Homestead Act of 1862 Goal:

• Encourage settlement of the West

Offer• 160 acres of land per family

Requirements• Within five years must have

House and farm If successful, land was theirs

Failing of the Homestead Act

Intended for poor families• Cost of outfitting the move to expensive

Law was ambiguous• Fraud and abuse prevalent• Became land grab for

Land speculators Cattlemen Miners Railroads

Exoduster African Americans who moved from the

post-Reconstruction South to Kansas 25,000 Africans Americans migrated West

Living on the Plains Houses

• No lumber, used available resources• Dugouts-homes built into the side of hills• Soddy- freestanding homes made of blocks

of prairie turf

Farming Implements Advance 1837 – steel plow, John Deere 1847- Reaping machines, Cyrus

McCormick 1869- Spring tooth harrow 1841- Grain Drill 1874- Barbed Wire 1878- Corn binder