homesteading

• when was the homestead act passed?

  1862
• what was a homestead?

  a family house with enough land to farm and support a family
• what did the homestead act promote?

  settlement of the west
• how many acres did the homestead act give people?

  160
• how much was it to file a claim for a homestead?

  $10
• who could file a claim?

  anyone
• how could you 'prove up' land?

  live on the land for 5 years, build a house and plant 5 acres of crops. it cost $30 to prove up the land meaning you owned it
• how much did homesteaders need to get started on their land?

  $800-1000
• why did people struggle to get started on homesteads?

  lack of money and equipment
• what are achievements of the homestead act?

  • by 1876, 6 million acres had become homesteads
  • this increased to 80 million eventually
  • allowed parts of the Great Plains to be settled for the first time
  • helped to fulfil 'manifest destiny'
• what were limitations of the homestead act?

  • only 13 million acres had been proven up by 1884
  • the 80 million acres of homesteads bought was only 16% of the 500 million acres of public land available
  • 60% of homesteads were not proven up
  • rich landowners used the homestead act to get cheap land (ranchers made employees file claims and sign rights to land back to them)
• water shortages (difficult to grow crops)

  • windmills/steel blades in 1854/1870
  • 1854=windmill was invented that could pump water out of the ground to irrigate the land to make it fertile
  • 1870=steel blades were added meaning windmills could stand better to withstand strong winds
  • not powerful enough to pump water from deep wells and needed constant maintenance
• growing crops (due to hard dry land crops failed)

  • turkey red wheat in 1573
  • Russian immigrants brought it to the plains
  • grew well in harsh conditions
• building materials (lack of wood on plains)

  • timber culture act in 1573
  • gave homesteaders an extra 160 acres of land if they planted trees on 40 acres on it
  • most trees died due to lack of water
  • large number of trees only grew in Minnesota
• protecting crops (not enough trees for fencing or to block wind)

  • barbed wire was invented which was a cheap effective way to protect crops from animals
  • much cheaper than building wooden fences and more effective at blocking crops compared to smooth wire
  • early types broke and rusted and was still expensive
• ploughing (deep grass roots mad plains difficult to plough)

  • sulky plow used which was strong and steel and made ploughing the plains much easier
  • 50,000 were sold in the first 6 years of production
  • however 6 times more walking ploughs were sold at the same time