Problems on
the Plains
“Solve It”
Activity
Where are the Great Plains?
The Great Plains cover parts of ten
states in the western part of the
country. It stretches all the way from
Texas to Montana and up into Canada totaling over half a million square
miles. The Rocky Mountains are just
to the west of the Great Plains.
1. Sod houses
The two pictures below show settlers on the Great Plains. Wood for
building houses was hard to get, because there are not many trees in
that area. So the early settlers made their houses from sod - the top
layer of soil and grass - cut and stacked to make the walls. Even the
roof was often made of sod placed over wood beams.
If the farm was successful, the owners would later build a new house
using wood boards shipped in by railroad.
2. Steel plows
As settlers began moving onto the Great Plains, they discovered that cast iron
plow blades commonly used in eastern states would often clog up. The soil of the
Great Plains is thick and rich, and would often stick to the cast iron blade.
Fortunately, a blacksmith named John Deere invented a way to make plow blades
out of steel. Steel is harder than cast iron, and can be made so smooth that it cuts
through soil without clogging up.
The photo below of a plow made with a steel blade is from a demonstration of oldtime farming techniques. The plow cuts through the soil without any problem.
John Deere's great invention:
The drawing below shows John Deere's steel plow blade and the
wood handles of a "walk behind" plow. As a horse pulls the plow, the
farmer uses the handles to keep the blade of the plow moving just at
the right depth in the soil. The blade cuts and turns over the soil,
which is then ready for planting.
3. Water-pumping windmills
There is not much rainfall on the
Great Plains, especially in the
summer. The invention of an
inexpensive water pumping windmill
helped solve that problem.
As the wind turns the blades of the
windmill, a long rod that runs down
the tower moves the handle of a water
pump up and down. The pump pulls
water up from a well, and sends it into
a storage tank or other container. That
way there is always water available for
people and animals.
Windmills like this are still used in
many farming areas in the West,
because they pump water without
using electricity.
A farm boy keeps the pump working: The photo below shows a farm boy adjusting the pump
mechanism at the base of a windmill. The pump is on top of a metal pipe drilled down to the
level of groundwater. That may be anywhere from about 20 to more than 100 feet deep. If
there is no wind, the pump can also work by moving the long handle up and down by hand.
4. Barbed Wire:
Barbed wire, invented in 1874, solved the problem of
building fences on the Great Plains. Wood for fences wasn't
easily available, since there were not many trees in the
region. Barbed wire was affordable and easy to put up.
5. Railroads to the West:
Railroads were an important technological advance that made it possible to settle
the West. They could bring in supplies at an affordable price. They also made it
possible for farmers to ship out their crops and ranchers to ship out their cattle.
The double photo below is an old stereoscope card. It shows a train on the famous
Transcontinental Railroad line that was completed to California in 1869.
When looked at in a hand-held viewer like the one on the right, stereoscope cards
gave a 3-D image of the scene. These cards and viewers were very popular in the
late 1800s and early 1900s.
Spreading railroad lines to the West
The heavy red lines on the map below show some of the railroads
built into the West during the 1860s and 1870s. The line connecting
Omaha, Nebraska, to Sacramento, California, is the first
Transcontinental Railroad. Many more lines were built later.
6. Wheat farming:
Farmers needed a crop that would grow well in the dry,
hot summers of the Great Plains. Wheat was the crop that
best fit the climate conditions. The wheat grains at the top
of the plant are ground into flour that is used to make
bread, cereal, and many other foods.
A mechanical reaper for wheat: Wheat was also a good match for the
farms of the Great Plains because the flat land is ideal for using the
mechanical reaper to harvest the crop. The reaper came into wide use
after about 1850, and made it possible to harvest large plots of wheat
quickly. The photo below shows an old-style reaper in action in a
wheat field.
Food for America's growing cities:
Farmers saved some of the wheat crop for themselves,
but most was bagged and sold to wheat buyers in big
cities. The photo below shows a farmer ready to load his
crop on a railroad freight car for shipment.
7. Dry Farming Techniques:
Farmers of the Great Plains developed dry farming techniques to adapt to the low
rainfall and conserve as much moisture in the soil as possible. These techniques
included:
1. Choice of a crop (wheat) that did not require much rainfall to grow.
2. Plowing the land deeply to allow moisture to get deep into the soil more easily when it did rain.
3. Planting seeds in the ground deeper than normal, perhaps two inches down instead of one inch
down. That put the seeds in contact with more moisture than the very top layer of soil.
The drawing below shows a old-fashioned seed drill. It is a device farmers use to plant seeds
in their fields after the land has been plowed. The wheat seeds go in the box at the top. As
the device is pulled through the fields by a horse, the seeds drop a few at a time through the
tubes and into soil at a depth set by the farmer.
8. Beef Cattle Raising:
Some parts of the Great Plains were ideal for
raising beef cattle. So that choice, too, was an
adaptation to the conditions of that area. Texas
was the most famous state for cattle ranching.
Beef for America's Growing
Population: Cattle from Texas
greatly expanded the availability of
beef in the U.S., especially after
1870. The animals were taken in
large herds to railroad
stations. Once there, they were
sold to cattle buyers and shipped
to cities like Chicago.
In Chicago the cattle were killed
and butchered by companies called
meat packers. The large sides of
beef were sold and shipped to food
companies in other cities in special
railroad cars cooled with ice.