EXAM 2 Chapter 15 During the Civil War the absence of southern Democrats allowed the Republican congress to pass the Homestead Act of 1862 o Provided 160 acres per homestead 320 per couple Most of these plains and mountain ranges a 160 acre homestead was impractical because the land being suited only for grazing livestock required much larger farms o Consequently between 1870 1900 less than 1 acre in 5 added to farming belonged to homesteads Four more acts passed don t need to know specifics o Timber Culture Act of 1873 o Desert Land Act of 1877 o Timber and Stone Act of 1878 o Timber Cutting Act of 1878 Act made to Native Americans The transfer of public lands into private hands also included purchases at public auctions under the Preemption Dawes Act of 1877 Nearly 100 million acres from Indian territories were opened for purchase ignoring promises General Revision Act of 1891 Closed critical loopholes Congress repealed the Timber Cutting Act of 1878 most abused land laws Homestead Act gets revised Jumps from 1 acre in 5 for farming to 9 in 10 Between 1862 and 1904 acres homesteaded exceeded government cash sales 274 million to individuals Fraud by large companies to obtain more land had a positive economic purpose o It helped transfer resources to large companies that could take advantage of economies of scale Some believed the Federal policies were generally inefficient o Hard to make this claim since the new West produced crops at such a rate that consumers of foodstuffs and raw materials enjoyed 30 years of falling prices The wheat and corn belt continued its western advance over the century with spring wheat leading in western Minnesota and the Dakotas and winter varieties dominating the southern Mid west and Nebraska Kansas and Oklahoma Tobacco remained tied to the old South but cotton production leapfrogged the Mississippi River 1900 Texas was the leading producer of cotton and cattle California Florida and other warm climate areas fruits vegetables and specialty crops became important due Alan L Olmstead and Paul W Rhode led great advancements in plant varieties irrigation systems fertilizers and to the refrigerated railcar other biological inventions o Worked along two paths 1 Discovery of new wheat varieties which allowed the North American wheat belt to push hundreds of miles northward and westward 2 Found new methods of combating insects and diseases 1848 Cyrus Hall McCormick moved his plant to Chicago to supply the Midwest with the Reaper he received a 1857 John Deere s new plant in Moline Illinois was annually producing 10 000 steel plows Iron plows were patent for in 1834 ineffective Between 1860 1920 the number of mouths fed per farmer nearly doubled with inventions freeing labor for industry but not without economic dislocations and personal hardships Falling prices forced farmers to produce more in order to keep up o Caused by the rapid increase in the supply of agricultural products globally In 1870 Americans spent 1 3 of their current per capita incomes on farm products o By 1890 they were spending just over 1 5 and continually declined o Populations were increasing but the farmer s proportionate income was decreasing income elasticity of demand was less than 1 for most agricultural crops Farmers blamed their problems to monopolies and conspiracies bankers who raised interest rates manipulated the currency and then foreclosed on farm mortgages etc 1867 The first farm organization of importance was the National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry o By 1874 it had 20 000 local branches and a membership of about 1 5 million o If businesses charged too much the farmers went into business themselves created cooperatives 1 Established first large mail order house Montgomery Ward and Company Greenback Movement Entered candidates in elections failed miserably o Two good outcomes scale electorate in the 1890s 1 Greenback agitation constituted the first attempt made by farmers to act politically on a national 2 Group s central tenets later became the most important part of the Populist s appeal to the The Alliances Created two independent principal groups Northwestern Alliance and Southern Alliance o Tried to merge but failed despite their similar views o Alliance memberships favored government ownership of transportation and communication facilities o Northwestern Alliance proposed that the federal government extend long term loans in greenbacks up to 50 of the value of a farm failed o Southern Alliance proposed the federal government establish a system of warehouses for the storage of nonperishable commodities so that farmers could obtain low interest loans of up to 80 of the value of the products stored The Populists Emerged from 30 years of unrest an unrest that was chiefly agricultural but that had urban connections 1839 An Agricultural Division had been set up in the Patent Office Congress created a Department of Agriculture in 1862 but its head who was designated the Commissioner of Agriculture did not have Cabinet ranking until 1889 Until 1920 Department of Agriculture performed 3 principal functions o Research and experimentation in plant exploration plant and animal breeding and insect and disease o Distribution of agricultural information through publications agricultural experiment stations and control county demonstration work o Regulation of the quality of products through the authority to condemn diseased animals to prohibit shipment in interstate commerce of adulterated or misbranded foods and drugs and to inspect and certify meats and dairy products in interstate trade Although colleges of agriculture had been established in several states by 1860 it was the Morrill Act of 1862 that gave impetus to agricultural training at the university level Many colonial farmers ignored advanced European farming methods designed to maintain soil fertility preferring to fell trees and plant around stumps and then move on if the land wore out 1850 More than 90 of all fuel based energy came from wood 1915 Wood supplied less than 10 of all fuel based energy in the US and in the Great Plains and other western regions timber grew increasingly scarce First major step toward reform was the General Revision Act of 1891 for conservation Chapter 16 The Transcontinental s o The Gold Rush of 1849 yielded knowledge about the riches of the Pacific Coast about the vast spaces that separated East from West o There were only 3 ways to get to the Pacific Coast o For those who could