blind assessment flashcards- American west/homestead Act

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