From Cradle to Reaper: A Prairie Farm Exhibit

Read the labels on six farm and kitchen artifacts to see how industry and railroads changed prairie life.

Answer Key

Walk through the gallery

Read the labels from the Prairie Farm Gallery of the made-up Crossroads County Museum in Illinois. The artifacts are typical of their time. Then answer the questions.

Prairie Farm Gallery: From Cradle to Reaper

Welcome. Between about 1830 and 1870, settlers turned much of the Illinois prairie into farms. At first many families grew most of their own food and made much of what they used. Over these decades, factories and railroads drew them into a national market: they grew more wheat and corn to sell, and they bought goods made far away.

Artifact 1: Grain cradle, 1830s. A long blade with wooden fingers that caught the cut wheat. Historians estimate a skilled worker could cut about 2 or 3 acres a day with one. Ripe wheat had to be cut within about two weeks or it spoiled, so farmers hired extra hands and traded work with neighbors at harvest.

Artifact 2: Model of a horse-drawn reaper, 1840s. Cyrus McCormick first showed his reaper in Virginia in 1831. In 1847 he opened a factory in Chicago. A reaper pulled by horses could cut about 10 to 12 acres a day. Many farmers bought one on credit, paying in parts after each harvest.

Artifact 3: Railroad shipping receipt, 1856. A receipt for 400 bushels of wheat shipped by rail from a prairie town to Chicago. The first railroad reached Chicago in 1848. By the late 1850s, lines from many directions met there, and steam-powered grain elevators lifted wheat from rail cars into huge bins to be sold and shipped east.

Artifact 4: Cast-iron cookstove, 1850s. Made in a foundry and shipped west by rail. By the 1850s, many farm families had replaced cooking over an open fireplace with a stove like this one, which used less wood and kept heat steadier, but had to be bought with cash or credit.

Artifact 5: Sewing machine, 1860s. Elias Howe patented a sewing machine in 1846, and by the 1860s companies sold machines to families on payment plans. One test reported in the 1860s found that a man's shirt took more than 14 hours to sew by hand and a little over an hour by machine.

Artifact 6: Kerosene lamp, 1860s. After oil was struck at Titusville, Pennsylvania, in 1859, kerosene made from it gave a brighter and cheaper light than most candles. Families could read, sew and do accounts after dark.

Closing panel. Not everyone gained. Farmers who sold wheat now depended on prices set in faraway markets. When prices fell in the Panic of 1857, some families who had bought land and machines on credit could not pay their debts and lost their farms. The prairie farms also stood on lands that the Sauk, Meskwaki, Potawatomi and Ho-Chunk nations had given up through treaties, war and forced removal in the 1830s. These nations govern their own lands today in states such as Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma and Wisconsin.

Draw a line from each artifact to the change it best shows.

Horse-drawn reaperC
Railroad shipping receiptB
Cast-iron cookstoveE
Kerosene lampD
Sewing machineA

A. Clothes stitched in a fraction of the time
B. Crops sent quickly to buyers in a big city
C. Fewer hands needed to bring in a harvest
D. Evenings lit well enough for reading
E. Cooking moved off the open fireplace

Use Artifacts 2 and 3. Why would McCormick most likely build his factory in Chicago rather than in Virginia?

A. Chicago was close to prairie wheat farms and rail lines.
B. Reapers were too heavy to ship by rail or by boat.
C. Virginia farmers had stopped growing any wheat by 1847.
D. Chicago had more factories than any city in the East.

Use Artifact 1 and Artifact 2. A farmer has 40 acres of ripe wheat. Which is the most likely result of using a reaper instead of cradles?

A. His wheat ripens sooner, so the harvest starts earlier.
B. He needs more neighbors than before to cut the same field.
C. He can cut the field before it spoils with fewer hired hands.
D. He no longer needs horses to work his farm at harvest.

Which change in household work do Artifacts 4, 5 and 6 together best show?

A. Families made their own stoves and lamps from local iron.
B. Farm families stopped cooking and sewing at home.
C. Families bought factory-made tools that sped up home work.
D. Farm women moved to cities to work in stove foundries.

Circle the sentence from the closing panel that shows how a change far from the farm could cost a family its land.

Not everyone gained.Farmers who sold wheat now depended on prices set in faraway markets.When prices fell in the Panic of 1857, some families who had bought land and machines on credit could not pay their debts and lost their farms.These nations govern their own lands today in states such as Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma and Wisconsin.

The numbers behind the machines

Use the table, which the museum posted beside the reaper, and the labels.

Work to Grow 100 Bushels of Wheat (USDA estimates)
Year	Hours of work	Main tools and power
1830	250 to 300	Walking plow, hand sowing, sickle
1890	40 to 50	Horse-drawn plow, seeder, binder

Use the lowest number in each range. Write the number. Growing 100 bushels of wheat took 210 fewer hours of work in 1890 than in 1830.

Which conclusion does the table best support?

A. By 1890 the work took about one-sixth as many hours.
B. By 1890 the work took about twice as long as in 1830.
C. By 1890 farmers grew wheat without the help of horses.
D. By 1890 the tools were about the same as in 1830.

The shipping receipt in Artifact 3 is a primary source. What can it tell a historian that the welcome panel cannot?

A. Why settlers first moved to the Illinois prairie
B. How much wheat one shipment carried to Chicago by rail
C. How many farms in Illinois owned a reaper in 1856
D. What wheat would sell for in the Panic of 1857

Why does the closing panel name the Sauk, Meskwaki, Potawatomi and Ho-Chunk nations?

A. They moved to Illinois after the farms were settled.
B. They built the railroads that carried wheat to Chicago.
C. They bought most of the reapers made in Chicago.
D. The farms were made on lands these nations had lost.

10.

Compare Artifact 1 with the closing panel. How did selling wheat in a national market change a farm family's risks?

A. They had less need for cash than before.
B. Their income now rose and fell with distant prices.
C. Bad weather at harvest no longer mattered to them.
D. Neighbors set the price of wheat at harvest time.

11.

Claim to judge: "New machines and railroads made life better for prairie farm families." Do you agree? Make a claim, use at least two artifacts or the data table as evidence, and explain your reasoning.

I mostly agree. A reaper could cut about 10 to 12 acres a day, compared with 2 or 3 with a cradle, so a family could bring in its wheat before it spoiled without hiring as many hands. The table shows the hours needed to grow 100 bushels of wheat fell from 250 to 300 in 1830 to 40 to 50 in 1890. At home, the cookstove used less wood, a sewing machine cut a shirt from more than 14 hours to about one, and kerosene lamps let families read after dark. Railroads carried their wheat to Chicago to be sold. But these gains came with risks: families bought machines on credit and depended on faraway prices, so some lost their farms in the Panic of 1857. And the farms stood on land the Sauk, Meskwaki, Potawatomi and Ho-Chunk had been forced to give up, so the change was not good for everyone.