Homesteaders

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  • Created by: sydn3y_14
  • Created on: 18-04-17 02:35
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  • Homesteaders
    • What was the attraction of the Plains?
      • Some moved to the West to escape from poverty or religious persecution
      • Letters home encouraged more and more people to follow onto the Plains
      • People were attracted by the various articles in newspapers and magazines which portrayed amazing images of the West
      • The Plains were habitable, this had already been proved by both the Indians and the early settlers such as the mountain men and trappers
      • The railway companies were anxious to attract settlers - they needed to sell the land to finance the railroads
      • The Homestead Act 1862 - this gave away land free of charge as long as you built a house on the land and live there for five years, each plot was 160 acres
    • Life on the Plains
      • The problems
        • Lack of water and very hard earth
        • Shortage of building materials
        • Extremes of weather - scorching hot summers and freezing winters
        • Prairie fires and plagues - these could both destroy crops in no time at all
        • Protecting the crops - especially against the cattle trails
      • The solutions
        • New crops - they grew harder types of wheat such as Turkey Red Wheat which could survive the harsh conditions better
        • Better machinery - stronger ploughs were built that would churn the earth
        • Fencing the land - this protected it against any wild animals
        • Wind pumps - these provided water to the land and homesteaders
        • Dry farming - this was a method by which they conserved the water in the soil through ploughing soon after heavy rain

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