Answer Key Idaho Agriculture Gets A Start

Read pages 171-172 in your text. Answer the following questions on your own.

1. More than half of Idaho's people depend on farming to make their living.

2. Railroads made it possible to sell farm crops and animals in faroff markets.

3. Irrigation made it possible to farm southern Idaho's desert land. Read page 135, and then answer the questions.

4. The first gardens and farms in Idaho were started to grow food for miners

5. Soon farming, fruit growing, and ranching brought more people to Idaho than mining

Read pages 136 and 137. Discuss the questions with your group. Copy your group's answer below.

6. Why did towns spring up quickly in some places and not in others? Answers will vary.

7. The cattle business was ideal for a number of years. Why was this? Answer, will vary; good grass, milder winters than the open plains, open range; work easy and cheap

8. Why was open range such a good thing for ranchers? Grass was free and abundant

9. Cruel winters killed many thousands of cattle. Do you think they should have tried to prevent them? How could the ranchers have prevented many of these deaths? Answers will vary

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