 Houses  Women’s Work  Technical & Educational Support  Farmers in debt

 Before settlers could farm they had to build shelter for themselves.  Trees were scarce – most settlers used the land itself to build homes.  Dugouts: Some settlers dug their homes into the sides of ravines or small hills  Signature look of the dugout home was a stovepipe jutting from the roof.

 Soddy – was a sod home  Settlers used blocks of prairie turf stacked upon one another  Kept the houses warm in the winter and cool in the summer  Offered little air or light  Were fireproof, but leaked continuously when it rained.  Flowers would bloom on top of the roof  Haven for snakes and insects

 Women did a tremendous amount of work and were often over burdened.  Fed and made clothes for the family  Worked besides men in the fields plowing, planting & harvesting the land.  Took care of the farm animals: hogs, sheep, chickens, cows, etc…  Did laundry by hand, ironed clothes, cooked all meals from scratch  Dug wells for water, made candles, needed to be the doctor of the family.

 Farming was back breaking work: everything was done by manual labor  John Deere invented the steel plow in 1837  In 1847, Cyrus McCormick invented & mass produced a mowing & reaping machine  By 1890 more than 900 manufacturers of farm equipment had sprung up: grain drill, barbed wire, cord binder.  Less time it took to harvest food = more $$$$$$$$

 Financed agricultural education  Morrill Land Grant Acts of 1862 & 1890 gave federal land to states to help finance agricultural colleges  Hatch Act of 1887 gave money to research & develop new farming techniques and developments  Allowed for the development of grains for dry land that would retain moisture

 New technology & machinery very expensive  Farmers would borrow money to buy it.  If wheat prices stayed high they could repay these loans – if wheat prices dropped farmers couldn’t repay the money to the banks.  Bonanza Farms: farmers needed more land to make more money. These farms were 10,000 acres in size  Bonanza Farms slowly folded due to the money it took to farm them and due to droughts between  Railroads took advantage of farmers & raised shipping costs. No competition, could charge what they wanted.