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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?
the settlement of the west
what did it encourage people to do?
take up unclaimed land in the west and build a new life there
how many acres of land did the homestead act give?
160 acres for free
what was the only cost
$10 to file a claim
who were claims filed by
the head of the family or single people over 21 (including former slaves and women)
what was proving up
once you had lived on the land for 5 years built a house and planted five acres of crops you could pay $30 and the homestead became yours
however what did many homesteaders need that made them struggle from the start
between $800 and $1000 to get started effectively to plough fields dig a well, buy a horse
achievments- what happened by 1876?
over 6 million acres of land became homesteads
what did this eventually increase to?
80 million acres
what did this allow?
parts of the great plains to be settled in for the first time
what did it encourage/help
encouraged immigration from the west/helped to fulfill manifest destiny
limitations- what occured by 1884?
only 13 million acres of land had been ‘proven up’
what happened to the 80 million acres of land homestead covered?
it was only 16% of the 500 million acres of public land available
what was never ‘proven up’
60% of homestead claims
what were rich landowners able to use the homestead act to do?
get land cheaply, e.g ranchers would make their employees file claims and sign the rights to the land over to them
what was the year a solution was developed for water shortages/ what was it
windmills/steel blades added/ 1854/1870
what could the windmill do/ when was this
it could pump water out of the ground to help farmers irrigate their land and make it more fertile/
what benefit did steel blades have
teh windmills could stand up better to the strong winds on the plains
what was the downside of windmills?
it wasn’t powerful enough to pump water from very deep wells and needed constant maintenance
what was the year a solution was developed for growing crops/ what was it
turkey red wheat/ 1873
who brought turkey red wheat to the great plains
russian immigrants
what was it
a tough winter wheat that grew well in the harsh conditions of the plains
what was the year a solution was developed for building materials/ what was it
1873/ timber culture act
what was it
gave homesteaders an additional 160 acres of land as long as they planted trees on 40 acres of it
what was the downside of planting trees
most died as there was not enough water
why was minnesota important
large numbers of trees only grew successfully there
what was the year a solution was developed for protecting crops/ what was it
(not enough trees for fencing or to block the wind) 1974/ barbed wire
what did it provide
a cheap and effective way to fence off land, to protect crops from animals
why was it more beneficial
it was much cheaper than building wooden fences and more effective at blocking animals than smoothing wire
what was the downside of barbed wire?
early types broke and rusted and it was still expensive
what was the year a solution was developed for ploughing/ what was it
(deep grass roots made the plains very difficult to plough) 1875/ sulky plow
what was it
it was a very strong ride- on steel plough that made ploughing much easier
how many were sold/when
50,000 sulky plows in the first 6 years of production
what was the downside of those sales
6 times more walking’ plows were sold at that time
