USHX 5.4: The West/ Farming the Great Plains

Drill: Open Range & Roundup
Open Range: public land on the Plains
Roundup: the branding of horses and cattle every spring

Students will examine the reasons why settlers moved to the Great Plains by discussing the various challenges that farming families faced and describing daily life on the Plains.

Notes:
1. scorching: very hot; so hot it burns things away
2. swarming: move across an area in a group
3. cope: deal with; try to overcome
4. breadbasket: place that provides most of the grain
5. centipede: worm with many legs
6. sod : ground
7. stalk: thick stem that supports a plant
8. husk: outer covering
9. soap: lye and animal fat
10. locus: insect that consumes croups by swarming in large numbers

Odds & Ends
1. Settlement in Oklahoma was fast pace because the government wanted to divide	Indian lands.
2. Settlers generally preferred to travel by train because railroads were much faster	than wagon travel.
3. The Homestead Act would allow unmarried women to own farms & allowed	immigrants to receive farms if they promised to stay in the
4. African American settlers in Kansas were called Exodusters.
5. The Great Plains were covered in grass.
6. Settlers found that the weather was always unpredictable on the Plains.
7. Swarms of locus caused settlers across the Great Plains to lose crops.
8. Farmers on the Great Plains were called sodbusters because they used heavy plows	to break up the soil.
9. Dry farming focused on crops that did not need large amounts of water.
10. In the 1880s farmers began using machines to help with planting and harvesting.
11. The Great Plains became known as the breadbasket of the world because so much	wheat was raised there.
12. Most pioneer families built their houses of sod because little wood was available.
13. Pioneer communities often centered on church and one room school houses.

USHX 5.4: The West/ Farming the Great Plains

1. F 		9. T
2. T 		10. T
3. F 		11. F
4. T 		12. F
5. T 		13. T
6. T 		14. T
7. F 		15. F
8. F		

16. Settlers moved west because the government passed land grant acts providing free land to people who would live on the land and farm it for a certain period of time.
17. The weather was harsh, with cold winters and hot summer. There was less rain to water the crops, and the soil was very hard to farm.
18. Men worked in the fields plowing, planting, and harvesting crops; women made and mended clothes, washed, cooked, grew vegetables, and raised chickens; children helped with chores and worked in the fields.

ORGANIZING INFORMATION 
Name of Act	Provided	Required	
Homestead Act	160 acres of government owned land to settlers	Settlers had to pay a small registration fee and promise to live on the land for five years	
Morrill Act	17 million acres of federal land to the states	States had to use funds from sale of land to build colleges	

1.	C
2.	D
3.	B
4.	B
5.	B	6.	B
7.	D
8.	A
9.	C
10.	 A	

Summary: In today’s lesson we examined the reasons why settlers moved to the Great Plains, discussed the various challenges that farming families faced, and described daily life on the Plains.

Homework: Exodusters & Sodbusters
Exodusters: Southern African Americans who moved west in a mass exodus
Sodbusters : nickname given to farmers and their plows because of the hard work	that was required to break up the sod of the Plains

Name __________________________ Class _______________ Date ________________

USHX Section5.4 The West/ Farming the Great Plains

Some expressions to understand: write the definition for each word below

• scorching:  
• swarming: 
• cope (173): 
• sod (173): 
• stalk): 
• husk: 
• breadbasket: 
• centipede: 

EVALUATING INFORMATION Mark each statement T if it is true or F if it is false.
______ 1. Settlement in Oklahoma was slow because the government would not divide Indian lands.
______ 2. Settlers generally preferred to travel by train because railroads were much faster than wagon travel.
______ 3. The Homestead Act would not allow unmarried women to own farms.
______ 4. African American settlers in Kansas were called Exodusters.
______ 5. The Homestead Act allowed immigrants to receive farms if they promised to stay in the
United States.
______ 6. The Great Plains were covered in grass.
______ 7. Settlers found that the weather was always mild on the Plains.
______ 8. In 1874 a swarm of wasps caused settlers across the Great Plains to lose crops.
______ 9. Farmers on the Great Plains were called sodbusters because they used heavy plows to
break up the soil.
_____10. Dry farming focused on crops that did not need large amounts of water.
_____11. During the 1880s farmers stopped using machines to help with planting and harvesting.
_____12. The Great Plains became known as the breadbasket of the world because so much bread was baked there.
_____13. Many pioneer families built their houses of sod because little wood was available.
_____14. Pioneer communities often centered on church and school.
_____15. Children in pioneer schools were always divided into many classes.

16. Why did many settlers move west?

17. Why was farming on the Plains difficult?

18. What types of work did men, women, and children do on the Plains?

ORGANIZING INFORMATION Complete the following chart, which describes legislation that affected settlement on the Great Plains.

Name of Act	Provided	Required	

	160 acres of government owned land to settlers		

		States had to use funds from sale of land to build colleges