Description
#1 Occupation: Farmer (owner or tenant)
In 1950, farming was still the number one occupation for men in Iowa. Advances in technology, like the one Elias Eliason is using to cultivate his corn field near Kanawha, Iowa, allowed a farmer to farm more acres of land. However, farming was hard work and risky because the success depended on the weather that season and current market prices. By 1950, many farmers were renting land and homes from people who owned the land but did not live there. Sometimes land owners, called landlords, were too old to do the hard work of being a farmer or wanted to live somewhere else. Landlords rented out their farms which especially helped beginning farmers since the price of land increased from $20 per acre in 1900 to $250 per acre in 1950.
Source-Dependent Questions
- What is the working environment for a farmer?
- What skills does this farmer need in order to be successful at his job?
- Create a bar graph showing the cost of an acre of land in Iowa in 1900 compared to the cost in 1950.