![]() New methods of dry farming were invented (the 'Turkey Red' variety of wheat was imported from Russia, and farmers put a layer of dust on the soil after rain, which stopped evaporation).ģ. The well driller and windpump allowed deep wells to be dug, which gave water. In the 1860s there were terrible droughts, followed by fires. ![]() Drought - There was only 38 cm of rainfall in a year, and the hot summers evaporated dampness from the land. Farmers could hire them for just a few days.Ģ. After 1880, thresher teams travelled around following the harvest. Teams of 'sodbusters' using steel ploughs did the first ploughing. Farmers could not afford a plough or machines. Farming - A hard crust on the soil made it hard to start farming. The first farmers on the Plains faced huge problems - this table shows some of them, and some of the solutions the farmers found. Law courts and sheriffs such as Wyatt Earp slowly established law and order. Law and order Local government was non-existent, and some early lawmen (such as Henry Plummer) were worse than the bandits. People had to make the most of any trip to their nearest town, where the women talked of the harvest and the men smoked corncob pipes and talked politics.ĥ. In the winter families were shut in 'and longed for spring'. No social life 'because of the distances between farmhouses'. ![]() 'I have often wondered how my mother stood it', wrote an early settler.Ĥ. The women collected 'buffalo chips' for fuel, stoked the stove, and made their own candles and soap. There was no water and little food.Ī travelling shoe-maker or tinker might pass through who would provide or mend household items, but usually families just had to make do. A typical household had only two buckets, some crockery and one cracked cup. Housework There was no wood for fuel, and no shops to buy items such as candles and soap. Homesteaders eventually built more modern houses.ģ. As a result the death rate, especially from diphtheria, was high.Ī 'good thick coat of whitewash' killed bedbugs. It was impossible to disinfect the floor. The sod houses leaked, and fleas and bedbugs lived in them 'by the million'. Dirt and disease Outdoor toilets and open wells. Settlers built 'sod houses', while they lived out of doors - people did their cooking on an open fire.Ģ. Building a house There was little wood to build log cabins. The burden of many of these fell on the women, whose lives were burdensome and unpleasant: Problemsġ. ![]() However, life on the Plains was tough, and the homesteaders faced many challenges.Įarly settlers and homesteader on the Plains faced huge problems. They were offered 160 acres of land for free, as long as they lived on it and farmed it for five years. The aim of this was to encourage people to move west. In 1862 the US government introduced a Homestead Act. Problems and solutions for homesteaders Background ![]()
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