Long time no blog! Recently we have been learning about moving westward. This resulted because of all the people coming to America and all the land that was up for grabs. The Homestead Act of 1862 was where the person moving west would pay $10 and in return they would get 160 acres. What a deal, huh? But with that 160 acres they had to plant 5 years worth of crops.
New farmers all thought pretty much the same because they've never farmed before. They thought, "This is easy! I'll just plant a bunch of wheat and I'll get high yields. I'm set!" The only bad thing about that is so many more people did that also. So there was a high amount of wheat and not so much money for the farmers. The farmers didn't know that the other farmers were doing this also, so they just kept planting more wheat.
The Department of Agriculture rolled around the corner and introduced the farmers to crop rotation and different ways of planting crops. This was new to the farmers because they got used to their soil and what they were planting. In the West the soil sucks. So they taught the farmers how to plant in circles so that the water for the plants wouldn't just roll off the land. This helped the farmers get crop diversity and better revenue on their crops.
These days, we can plant enough food for about 3 million people with even less farm acreage. This is due to technological advances and biotechnology. Scientists can take genes from one organism and put them with other organisms to counter whatever disease or disorder they have. Sciences have come such a far way and the only way is up!
8 comments:
Good blog. I liked how you talked about everything from the Homestead act to the agricultural decisions they had to make. I liked how you mentioned the major problem that the farmers had in growing crops. Good job. :]
Nice blog Jaime, pretty short but good. Technology made the world go around huh? Just like they did in the west. And they certainly reduce time and effort for the farmers to work on their lands and grow crops well and effectively. Contour planting is one thing but wheat thresher, grain spreader are the others. They helped the farmers to plant and spread the grains quickly. Its amazing how science and technology can improve the lifestyle of those living in the west right?
Jaime! your blog was great. I really learned something new. I like how you explained the homstead axt and how things was so much cheaper back then. You also talked about the argiculture which was also very interesting to me. Marvelous, marvelous, marvelous job girl!
Nice and informative blog. I liked how you elaborated on what the farmers thought when they moved West and how did they fare in the market. Nice job explaining about the introduction of crop rotation and how it impacted the farmers' revenue and the establishmetn of Department of Agriculture. Overall, your blog was good. Keep it up.
Great topic Jaime. Westward migration seems to be the main topic of all the bloggers. Your blog gives a little bit more detail than the others though. I like that you put in an example from the present time such as biotechnology. It made the blog more informational to put in something from today.
I think, honestly, back then they were lucky to get so much land for only ten bucks. Today you would be considered crazy if you thought you could buy that much for ten bucks. If farmers were able to get land like that for so cheap they would be considered lucky as anything. Now in the present day it is hard to find decent land for under 500,000 dollars. I've looked at some small horse farms and they are practically in the millions.
I enjoyed reading your blog. A lot of farmers thought that it would be easy to get 160 acres amd make it work with five years. It turned out to be a little harder than they thought. All the colors really kept me interested too.
Nice, Piatt. Good and short, which is something everyone seems to be forgetting. Liked the personal touches all well. This was the favorite blog of the week. Good for you.
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