Farming and Ranching on the Prairies -- with Giveaway -- by Donna Schlachter

                                                   Hand tools typical to farming and ranching, 1850s

Farming and ranching in the United States has a long and colorful history, beginning with the earliest settlers and reaching its heyday during the Westward Migration of the 1840s through 1880s.

The first settlers tended to claim a parcel of land near a water source such as a river or spring. Then they plowed up the grassy sod and constructed one-room homes called soddies, leaving a hole in the roof for smoke to escape, a door for entrance, and, if they were particularly resourceful, a window. This cleared land then served as the basis for their crops, primarily food for themselves and their stock. Often, the same oxen or horses that hauled their wagon were used to pull the plows, and crops were harvested by hand using tools such as scythes, threshers, and rakes. A family’s livelihood or lack thereof often dictated by the crop yield, the weather at harvest time, and their ability to store the harvest successfully to last through the harsh winter until spring.

Several important milestones occurred which made the farmers’ and ranchers’ lives a little easier and offered greater crop yields, including the invention of farm machinery, fencing materials, and fertilizers.

As far back as 1819, Jethro Wood patented the first iron plow with interchangeable parts for types of soil and plantings. Now the farmer could use the same plow to prepare a field for corn or potatoes, for example. Then, in 1837, John Deere manufactured plows with steel shares that were more durable and kept their edge longer than the iron version.

1840's grain reaper

 

 

                                                                        1840's plow

 

 

In 1831, Cyrus McCormick invented a grain reaper, pulled by a horse. Now a farmer could harvest more acres in a shorter period of time, increasing his food supply and his cash crop sales. His unique design guided the stalks to the blade, cut and then shoved the stalks onto the ground in the wake of the reaper, making cradles and scythes obsolete. In 1854, McCormick introduced the self-rake reaper. This new design gathered the cut grain into neat piles which workers then tied into sheaves before sending to the thresher. Each self-rake reaper equaled the labor of four or five men, which was particularly valuable during the Civil War when so many men left home to enlist. In 1837, the Pitts Brothers patented a practical threshing machine. However, it wasn’t until 1926 that a successful light gasoline tractor was developed.

While we may consider hybridization of corn and other crops a recent advance, in 1816 John Lorain began discussing the benefits of cross-breeding corn to obtain higher yields; in 1866 Gregor Mendel published his experiments in plant hybridization; in 1872 Luther Burbank produced a “Burbank potato”, the first in a long line of new and improved varieties; in 1905 George Harrison Shull began experiments with cross-breeding varieties of corn, perfecting his method by 1909. Donald Jones developed a system in 1917 to grow modern hybrid seed; and in 1926 Henry Wallace used advertising and promotion to popularize his hybrid seed corn.

However, with increased yields and these new varieties, farmers realized they needed to assist the soil with additives and fertilizers. 1850 saw the manufacture of the first mixed fertilizer called Manufactured Guano. In 1908, Haber and Bosch developed the process to make ammonia, leading to increased food production sufficient to feed a billion people a year. In 1914 Edwin Broun Fred supplied cultures of nitrogen-fixing bacteria to growers of legumes. 1921 saw the use of a World War 1 airplane to spread lead arsenate dust in a grove in Ohio; and in 1939 Paul Muller discovered the insecticidal properties of DDT, which was later banned as being harmful to wildlife that ate the poisoned insects.

Barbed-wire samples
 

With farms and ranches increasing in acreage to produce more yield, the need for effective and efficient fencing arose. In 1874 the Glidden barbed-wire patent was granted to contain and protect cattle. The idea of fencing thousands of acres was revolutionary, and given the harsh weather on much of the plains, as well as limited trees for posts, barbed-wire was the perfect solution. On his farm in Illinois, Joseph Glidden first perfected his design in 1816, while a local lumber dealer, Jacob Haish, developed the “s” barb that came a close second for a short time.

Soon the cattlemen’s fervor to protect the best grazing and water sources created friction, forcing small farms and ranches into cutting the wire to regain access to land for their stock. Because of a history of open range ranching, where branded cattle wandered at will and were gathered up in the spring, the switch to fenced ranching resulted in violence and crime for many years. Barbed-wire, often nicknamed “devil’s rope”, now boasts more than two thousand types, and is still used today.

With overproduction and over-grazing, combined with drought and blizzards, the Great Plains faced serious problems in 1886 and 1887. As plow agriculture extended into the semi-arid plains, erosion swept away the topsoil. Just as in the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, yields dropped, forcing farmers and ranchers to use increasingly invasive methods such as over fertilizing, plowing more land and increasing herd sizes, and more mechanization.

As you can see, much of the scientific and mechanical progress made over the past 150 years or so was due to the requirements of farmers and rancher and the demand for more food for a growing population. While the number of farms and ranches in the United States has decreased in the past 50 years or so, the size of the holdings and amount of food produced has increased to meet the demand. A typical family-owned farm currently produces enough food to feed more than 100 people. As we enjoy the Thanksgiving season, let’s remember to be thankful to our farmers and ranchers who keep us well-fed.

Leave a comment about your favorite Thanksgiving dish, and I’ll draw randomly for an ebook copy of A Pink Lady Thanksgiving.

About A Pink Lady Thanksgiving: Kate and Tom McBride, along with their newborn, John Thomas, settle into life in Oregon City, Oregon in November 1879. And while Kate enjoys being a wife, mother, and homemaker, she still remembers her fanciful dreams of last year: become a detective to solve mysteries. Her first case is to find the missing fiancée of a local banker. Tom, however, isn’t sure this is a good idea, particularly not when somebody throws a fiery bomb through the window of their home, burning it to the ground. They learn that their pasts may not be as far behind them as they’d hoped, but when their son is kidnaped, they just join forces to reveal who is trying to stop them—from finding the missing woman, and from starting their new life together.

Resources: 

https://www.facebook.com/Hale-County-Farm-and-Ranch-Museum-244000705709555/
https://www.aghalloffame.com/

       

     About Donna:

Donna lives in Denver with husband Patrick. As a hybrid author, she writes historical suspense under her own name, and contemporary suspense under her alter ego of Leeann Betts, and has been published more than 30 times in novellas, full-length novels, devotional books, and books on the writing craft. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Writers on the Rock, Sisters In Crime, Pikes Peak Writers, and Christian Authors Network; facilitates a critique group; and teaches writing classes online and in person. Donna also ghostwrites, edits, and judges in writing contests. She loves history and research, and travels extensively for both. Donna is represented by Terrie Wolf of AKA Literary Management.

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Wagon Train, Ho! By Donna Schlachter – with Giveaway

Pioneers crossing the Plains of Nebraska (wikipedia)

Whenever somebody says “wagon train”, various images are conjured in our minds. The iconic television program of the 1950s. The multitude of westerns produced over the years. Bonnets, long skirts, horses, whips, campfires, rugged terrain, mountains, butter churns, running out of water, blazing hot sun, freezing winter storm, stampedes—but most always, the western migration to the Pacific coast is the goal.

So it might surprise you to learn that wagon trains are neither a product of the 1840s and onward, or an American invention. In fact, one of the most famous wagon designs, the Conestoga, is first officially mentioned in 1717. James Hendricks purchased the wagon named after the Conestoga River in Lancaster County, PA. The design was perhaps introduced by German settlers.

Line drawing of a Conestoga wagon with oxen (wikipedia)

Conestoga wagons were initially used during colonial times as a cargo wagon, pulled by up to eight horses or twelve oxen. A special breed of draft horse, the Conestoga, was developed for hauling these heavy freight wagons in the 1700s.

Covered wagons were a variation of the Conestoga wagon, a pared-down version because the heavy Conestoga was too weighty for the thousands of miles of travel required. Often a farmer used an ordinary farm wagon with a series of bent saplings and a canvas cover strung over the top. Oxen were most common, although mules and horses were also used. 

Perhaps the favorite of the covered wagons was the chuckwagon, a type of field wagon used to store and prepare food. The invention of the chuckwagon as we currently know it is attributed to Charles Goodnight, a Texas rancher, in 1866. Following the Civil War, the beef market in Texas expanded, and thousands of cattle drives meant tens of thousands of men on the trail for months at a time. He added a “chuck box” to the back of a wagon with drawers and shelves for storage, along with a hinged lid for a flat cooking surface. With a water barrel and a canvas firewood sling, the rig was complete.

Wagon trains had a hierarchy of sorts. There was a leader or a captain who rode in the first wagon. The rest of the wagons fell into an unspoken position usually based on the fastest team or lightest wagon. If one of the families fell sick, they were moved back in the train since they’d probably have to stop more often, and perhaps because nobody wanted the germs “blowing back” on them. Later arrivals joined the end of the train until they proved themselves worthy of moving forward. The chuck wagon usually came before the sick.

To save wear and tear on their animals, migrants walked a good part of the day. Only the very young, very old, or infirmed would ride in the wagon. With oxen, many times the driver would also walk alongside.

Scout riders rode ahead to check for safe passage, while several rode up and down the wagon train, checking that everybody was keeping up. If a wagon broke down, those behind would halt and help with the repair. Sometimes this was also a good time to light a fire and have something hot to eat.

Any cattle included in the wagon train were watched over by a couple of riders, then when the train stopped for the night, were driven into the inside of the circle of wagons for safekeeping and so they didn’t wander off in the night.

In my book, Christmas Under the Stars, I used oxen to pull the covered wagons because that was a tidbit of history that I thought readers would enjoy. Driving oxen is a skill unto itself, and so I did research into the words used, such as “gee” and “haw” (right or left).

To enter a random drawing to win a print (US only) or ebook copy of Christmas Under the Stars, please leave a comment.

About Christmas Under the Stars:

November 1858, Utah Territory

Edie Meredith strives to keep her temper and her tongue under control as she heads west with her brother to California. Raised in an itinerant preacher family, she promises she will never marry a man of the cloth.

Tom Aiken, drover of the wagon train, longs to answer his true calling: to preach, and while he realizes not every woman would choose a preacher for a husband, he hopes to soon find his help-meet.

Suspicious ‘accidents’ plague their journey. Is someone trying to keep them from reaching their destination? Or will misunderstanding and circumstances keep them apart?

Donna lives in Denver with husband Patrick. As a hybrid author, she writes historical suspense under her own name, and contemporary suspense under her alter ego of Leeann Betts, and has been published more than 30 times in novellas and full-length novels. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Writers on the Rock, Sisters In Crime, and Christian Authors Network; facilitates a critique group; and teaches writing classes online and in person. Donna also ghostwrites, edits, and judges in writing contests. She loves history and research, and travels extensively for both. Donna is represented by Terrie Wolf of AKA Literary Management.





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