Homesteaders
- 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
- The problems
- What was the attraction of the Plains?
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