Problems with Farming on the Great Plains

How useful is source E for understanding the problems faced by white people who farmed on the plains?

Source E is useful as it shows us a wide range of issues that white people had on the great plains; including hostile Indians (who viewed farmers as a threat to their way of life), bugs and grasshopper plagues (which could destroy crops in a matter of hours) and the 49’s (who would try to dig for gold on their land).

However, this is limited in usefulness as it does not show some of the other key problems, such as lack of water, lack of wood for fuel or prairie fires. We know this was a problem as there was insufficient rainfall to allow wheat to grow and the sun baked the earth hard, making it impossible to plough. The lack of wood and trees meant there was nothing to build a stable home out of and they had to resort to ‘sod houses’- (houses made of dried mud)- and there was nothing substantial to burn for fuel. This meant they had to use ‘buffalo chips’. Prairie fires could destroy crops in no time at all and were very common, spread rapidly by the wind.

The source is quite useful due to the provenance. It was published in a magazine which tackles social and political issues so we know that it should be an accurate depiction of what life was like. The fact that the image is drawn in a cartoon style show us that, by 1876 they could begin to poke fun at these issues as the west became more civilised by the whites.

Still, this magazine is called ‘Puck’, which by definition means ‘evil or mischievous’, which gives us a sense that the company may go slightly over the top with with the way in which they portray issues. The way they illustrate the image suggests that these all happen often, or even at the same time- and is very much a generalisation. Some homesteaders may not have even been affected by many of these issues, (e.g.- if they lived by a stream there would probably not be shortage of water to worry about). A more reliable source would be letters home or diary extracts from the homesteaders, since the authors are probably not homesteaders themselves and they don’t know first hand what the issues are.

In conclusion this source is probably not the most useful as it doesn’t show the full extent of the problems faced by the homesteaders ,and the way it is portrayed may be misleading an overdramatic as many of the homesteaders found ways to overcome issues and live a prolific on the plains.