Tools
1800s
1900s
Present
Family Farm
100
The cultivator is from what century?
What is the 1800s.
100
How many people lived on a farm?
What is 90 out of every 100 people in America.
100
About how many Americans lived on a farm?
What is about 40 out of every 100 people in America.
100
How many Americans live on a farm?
What is only about 2 out of every 100 people in America live on a farm.
100
In the 1800s most families lived in
What is a log cabin.
200
The Sulky Plow is from what century?
What is 1900s.
200
How much land did the average farmer have?
What is only as much land as one family could plow and plant in a year, so about 50 acres.
200
How much did farms grow from the 1800s?
What is most farms were three times the size of farms in the 1800s.
200
How big are farms?
What is Some farms are almost 10 times the size of farms 200 years ago. They are about 450 acres in size.
200
Soddies were
What is homes made of dirt and roots of grass in the 1900s.
300
Plows in the 1800s made work slow because
What is farmers had to stop every few steps to scrape dirt from their plows.
300
Farmers originally avoided prairies to plant because
What is prairie grass had deep, tangled roots and it would be hard to clear the land and get anything to grow there.
300
What is different about farms in the 1800s than in the 1900s?
What is farmers raise enough crops and animals to be sold for cash.
300
How has farming changed as a business?
What is because most farms acres are owned by big companies rather than just being family owned.
300
Farmers in the present are mostly leaving the business because
What is they are struggling to make enough money to pay their bills.
400
Why did it take longer to labor crops in the past than in the present?
What is the technology was not as advanced and it took more time to farm.
400
Why did farmers raise enough food for just their family?
What is because it was hard work to clear forests and prairies for planting. Most farmers felt they were doing well just to raise enough food to feed their families.
400
How did farmers purchase more land?
What is because they grew more crops and raised more animals, that were sold for money, they were able to buy more land.
400
Today most farm work is done by
What is machines.
400
Families on farms in the 1800s and 1900s are different from the present because
What is families in the present live like most Americans by buying their clothes at the store instead of making them, sending their children to school and not cooking over open fires.
500
Gas is important in farming now because
What is most of the work done by plowing, planting and picking crops is done by machines that are powered by gasoline engines.
500
Farming in the 1800s was
What is hard and tiring because it was all physical labor with only a few tools to help make the work easier.
500
How were farmers able to work on their larger land with less people?
What is because they were also able to buy machines to help them work on the land.
500
Farmers are able to grow more food because of _____, but this is a problem because ______.
What is fertilizers and pesticides. This is a problem because chemicals used on crops can be harmful to other living things.
500
Family life on the farm in the 1800s was
What is depressing because disease hit faster, people got hurt more often and there wasn't always food for everyone to eat.
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