Farming the Plains

The Main Idea

The government promoted the settlement of the West, offering free or cheap land to those willing to put in the hard work of turning the land into productive farms.

Reading Focus

• What incentives encouraged farmers to settle in the West?

• Which groups of people moved into the West, and why did they do so?

• What new ways of farming evolved in the West?

Incentives for Settlement

• New legislation

– In 1862, Congress passed three acts to turn public lands into private property.

• The Homestead Act gave 160 acres of land to heads of household.

• The Pacific Railway Act gave land to the railroad companies to build lines.

• The Morrill Act gave lands to states for colleges for agriculture and the mechanic arts.

Incentives for Settlement

• Railroads encourage settlement – Railroads reaped profits by selling some of their land to

settlers. They placed ads to lure homesteaders to the West. The Oklahoma Land Run of 1889 opened unassigned Indian land to settlers. Over 50,000 people took part in the rush to stake a claim on these 2 million acres of land.

• Boomers vs. Sooners

• Closing of the frontier– In 1890 the Census Bureau issued a report, “there can

hardly be said to be a frontier line.” Historian Frederick Jackson Turner stated in a famous essay that the existence of the frontier made the United States distinctive.

– Frontier thesis

–

Migrating West

White settlers• Middle-class businesspeople

or farmers from the Mississippi Valley moved west.

• They could afford money for supplies and transportation.

African American settlers

• Benjamin Singleton urged his own people to build communities.

• Some fled the violent South.

• Rumors of land in Kansas brought 15,000 Exodusters who also settled in Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois.

European settlers• Lured by economic

opportunity, they came from Scandinavia, Ireland, Russia, and Germany.

• They brought their farming experience with them.

Chinese settlers• Initially came for the gold

rush or to build railroads

• They turned to farming, especially in California, establishing the fruit industry there.

• Most Chinese were farm laborers because they were not allowed to own land.

New Ways of Farming

New farmers faced harsh climate, scarce water, and lack of lumber. Farmers installed windmill-driven pumps and used irrigation techniques. They used the earth for shelter, first building dugouts into hillsides, then making sod houses.

New farming equipment helped. James Oliver developed a sharper plow edge. Combine harvesters used one operation to cut wheat, separate grains, and remove the husks.

Giant bonanza farms operated like factories, and they reaped great profits during good seasons. However, they could not handle the boom-and-bust farming cycles well, and by the 1890s, most bonanza farms had been broken up.

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