After the civil war, the white settlers started moving towards the western part of America in pursuits for wealth and better lives. The settlers were divided into two groups. Those who worked on agriculture were farmers while the latter, worked on herding cattle and selling them for meat were ranchers. Both groups faced hardships and obstacles while trying to make a living in the hot sunny West. However the real question is, who survived? Who did not?
Farmers, they went to the west to claim lands for farming. The farmers were given 160 acres according to the Homestead Act of 1862 and they had to work on the same land for 5 years to officially own it. Farmers must also pay off their debts and loans to the government. However alot of farmers failed to claim their lands because of poor harvest and lack of rain during the years thus couldn't make any money to pay off debts and loans to the government nor had money for themselves. As the result, farmers left homes to find better lands and ways to make money.
While farmers went to the west for agriculture, ranchers went there for cattle grazing and selling the cattle for meat. There were plenty of open lands in the West for the ranchers to use. Ranchers also encountered obstacles while trying to build lives there. Ranchers had to graze the cattle and herd them on a long walk to their destination. It would take days and days and days to finally reach their destination. By that time, the cattle would be very thin and unhealthy due to lack of water and from being in the sun. Thus the meat wouldn't be very healthy and good enough to sell and the ranchers would lose money.
All of these continued to happen until the advancement of technology improved. Railroads made things alot easier for the ranchers since they can transport the cattle easily and quickly and the use of barbed wires to keep the cattle where they were and prevent any outsiders. For farmers, the improvement in farm machinary helped to reduce time and effort to work on the land like grain spreaders, steam powered threshers, cornhuskers and cornbinders, and more efficient plows. Farmers became more aware of the unpredictability of rainful in the west and started to use crop rotation, hybridization and preservation of water and topsoil.
Famers and ranchers had to face alot of hardships and obstacles but they both succeeded. However in my opinion, it were the ranchers that succeeded the most. It is because they didn't invest in as many machinary as the farmers did. So whenever the prices of the machinary dipped, they hurt the farmers more than they did to the ranchers. Plus farmers had to grow crops in which the machines were designed for. The ranchers didn't have to pay off loans or debts to the government. They created more money prior to the destruction of buffalos and the removal of Native Americans. Thus the ranchers survived...
If you have a different opinion or feel strongly about this, please do tell me. I am open to all views and opinions.
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7 comments:
Very nice blog! I had never wondered about who would've prospered more, farmers or ranchers, and you did it very well. After reading your blog, I can totally see why the ranchers did better. And in my opinion, I'd be a rancher instead of a farmer any day! Farmers were just never safe, from Indian attacks to awful weather to debt from the machinery and new technology. Their lives must've been a lot harder than ranchers.
I really liked reading your blog. I would have chosen to be a rancher, it seems like a more profitable job. With the new technologies, railroad ranchers had much less obstacles i think. It makes me wonder why most didn't just start ranching instead of going to the city.
I loved your blog. It was wonderful. It was great how you explained the duties of farmers and reanchers. To me it seemed like you compared the two. I learned some new things about ranchers also. Keep this up!
I think both farmers and ranchers were faced with difficult challenges in the west, whether it was the weather or lack of profits. I think farmers were more successful in mass producing numerous crops, which caused the value of the crops to drop in the market. This then sparked conflict between farmers and the government, causing farmers to work together and form alliances. Therefore, from this perspective, it's hard to tell whether the farmers' success was less than that of the ranchers'.
I really enjoyed reading your blog. you put a creative spin on the whole "ranching and farming" thing. I never thought about who made more money off of it, I just always thought they made about the same. out of the two, I'd rather be a rancher haha. farmers always had to deal with their debt because of their equipment and the harsh weather.
This was a very good blog. I learned that the Homestead Act of 1862, gave farmers 168 acres. Many of the farmers bought, the equipment they needed to farm on debt. But when their crops did not grow well due to bad weather and not using crop rotation; farmers then went in to debt. This example is a lesson to anyone who buys anything on debt. You should plan carefully and consider all the risks before taking a loan, if you don’t the loan could backfire on you.
this was a good blog. i like how you included that after the civil war, the white settlers started moving towards the western part of america. most people didn't even blog about the civil war or they didn't talk about the settlers. but overall your blog was good.
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