Life In A Soddy

When the farmers got west of the 100th meridian they found themselves in short grass country where the grasses were gramma, needle and buffalo. The annual rainfall at 10-20 inches was more than half that in tall grass country. The free 160 acres they got with the Homestead Act would have sustained them in the well-watered lands of the 100th meridian but out on the plains it was barely enough to support a subsistence farm much less enough to raise a cash crop. Once on the land he had to build