Homework Check Please turn in your chart on what was hard and easier of farming on the Plains. Remember I’m checking to see if you take complete notes!

Homework Check

Please turn in your chart on what was hard and easier of farming on

the Plains.

Remember I’m checking to see if you take complete notes! 5 points daily work

Farmers On the Great PlainsWarm-up

What do you know about farming on the Great Plains? Write two or three phrases about farming. If you do not know anything about farming, look at the picture below and write three things you notice.

The Homestead Act• 1860’s farmers began

to settle.• Homestead Act – 1862

– offered 160 acres to anyone willing to live on and farm the land for five years.

• Men, single women and widows.

• 1862-1900 – ½ million farms were started.

Land Rush

http://movieclips.com/4JzR-far-and-away-movie-the-oklahoma-land-rush/

• As settlers spread across the West – free land began to appear• Native Americans forced off of land• Farmers could claim free land• 100,000 land seekers lined up• “Sooners” – cheated and staked out land

Farm Life• Life was hard

– Bitter cold winters– Hot blazing summers

• Men and boys – worked fields• Women and girls – closer to house

– Vegetable gardens, raised chickens and a cow, cooked, sewed, made butter, soap and candles, canned vegetables

• Spring planting and autumn harvest – everyone went to fields.

Sod Houses• Few trees – did not build wooden houses• Used sod – pieces of grass with attached roots and dirt

cut into strips• Walls about 3 feet thick• Kept in the heat during winter and kept it cool in summer

Community• Farm families often joined together to get things done.• Built houses, barns and schools – together• Social Events – barn dances, church services, holiday picnics,

quilting bees and parties

Farming on the Plains• Sod was good for house not for farming• Long tough roots hard to break apart• Little rain• New technologies

• Steel plow – easier to break apart the land• Grain drills – plant several rows of seed at once• Threshing machines – made removing grains of wheat faster and easier• Barbed wire – marked off the land, kept cattle from roaming

Joseph Glidden

Grain drills

Threshing machine

Steel plow

Barbed wire

• New ways to farm• Dry farming – deep ditches between rows allowing water to reach

roots of plants• Raised crops like winter wheat – grows in the spring when ground has

moisture and harvested before hot summer

Writing AssignmentThink about what life was like on a farm. Would you have moved to the Great Plains to start a farm? Start by making a list of reasons to stay an go.

Reasons to go Reasons to stay

Write a letter to a family member explaining your decision to stay or go. Explain why or why not. Use the information from these notes and your reading notes to support your opinion.