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Homestead Act
Permitted "any citizen or intended citizen to select any surveying land up to 160 acres and gain title to it after five years' residence" If they farm the land. -
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Farming Boom
Farming in the west became very popular after the government started to send people west. This was part of there manifest destiny. -
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Wide-spread Fires
Fires became a huge problems in the plains which means the farmers crop were ruined. -
Pacific Railway Act
A law that gave lands to railroad companies to develop a line linking the East and West Coasts -
Morrill Act
Federal law that gave land to western states to build agricultural and engineering colleges. -
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Executive department that helped farmers adapt to their new environment. -
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Railraod Growth
Four rail lines were built across the country to have trains going from California to New York. This was all part of the Pacific Railway Act. -
Insects
Insects became a problem in the 1870's like grasshoppers which ate the crops of the farmers. They also ate the wooden hadles off the farmers tools. Farmers killed many of them but there where to many. -
Chinese Immigrants
By 1880 3,200 Chinese immigrants in California had went into farming after the California Gold Rush. One Chinese farmer earned $9,500 in Sacramento County. That was an enormous amount back then. -
Death Comes for the Archbishop
A book by Willa Cather explained what life was like in the American frontier. This is one of many books Cather wrote about life on the frontier.