Timeline for Why would the tribes choose herding instead of agriculture in the Great Plains?
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14 events
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| Sep 26, 2018 at 20:17 | comment | added | jbowman | @kingledion - Denver averages less than 400mm of rain/year; Fargo ND about 600. But a bigger issue is the long droughts that sometimes last years, which can devastate agriculturally-based communities (that don't rely on relatively advanced technology); I believe I read about this in Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Opening of the American West. | |
| Sep 26, 2018 at 18:41 | comment | added | jamesqf | @kingledion: All those locations are EAST of the Mississippi River. To an American, the Great Plains begin WEST of the Mississippi: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Plains Rainfall increases considerably as you move east from the rain shadow effect of the Rocky Mountains: eldoradoweather.com/climate/US%20Climate%20Maps/… | |
| Sep 26, 2018 at 14:13 | comment | added | Robert Columbia | @jamesqf indeed, this was a major device used in the writings of H. P. Lovecraft, writing in the 1920's. Many of his stories revolve around old New England farming communities lately stricken with decline, poverty, and the eldritch abominations that seem to follow. Also, look at the Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia. Lots of wonderful farmland, most of it used for cattle grazing. | |
| Sep 25, 2018 at 21:07 | comment | added | Michael J. | I think this answer fits very well with the OP's premise that the buffalo men "believe Mother Earth and Father Sky punished mankind for their arrogance and misuse of technology" If technology is needed in order to become a successful farmer, it makes sense to me that the buffalo men would avoid farming. | |
| Sep 25, 2018 at 17:58 | comment | added | workerjoe | Objection: rain in America doesn't fall in millimeters! | |
| Sep 25, 2018 at 12:12 | comment | added | kingledion | @Luaan First off, no syllabus from Berkeley is going to give you an even-handed view of ecology. Why don't you find a syllabus from University of Iowa? Second off, the lack of trees was caused by fire, not by lack of rain. Indianapolis gets 1078mm; Peoria gets 926mm; Des Moines 914mm. Compare to Manchester NH at 1132mm, Hartford 1164mm, Albany 999mm. The Corn belt isn't exactly drought-stricken compared to the North East. There is plenty of rain for trees wherever they aren't farming. | |
| Sep 25, 2018 at 8:20 | comment | added | user20787 | We need more sources, but after a quick google it seems like the soil in Great Plains, together with the soil in Ukraine/South Russia, Northern China, and Argentina's Pampas, are considered the world's most productive regions with highest soil quality. I'm no domain expert in soils so I can't say for sure. I was aware Ukraine is known for rich soil though. | |
| Sep 25, 2018 at 8:06 | comment | added | Luaan | @kingledion Not according to inappropriateCode's link (nature.berkeley.edu/departments/espm/env-hist/studyguide/…); it would be a grassland or desert, mostly with nowhere near enough water to actually work for sustained farming without irrigation. Just having good soil isn't enough for farming. After all, that's exactly why there aren't trees around - not enough water. | |
| Sep 24, 2018 at 23:54 | comment | added | kingledion | @Joe What you say is not true. The Great Plains of the US are one of the world's largest regions of Mollisols, generally the best agricultural soils in the world. The combination of fire regime and pedoturbation without extensive tree roots makes them deep and fertile; the best soils in the world for grain crops. Stony New England soils are thinner and poorer...and full of rocks to boot. Take away human agriculture, and the Great Plains would be fertile savanna rivalling the Serengeti. | |
| Sep 24, 2018 at 23:17 | comment | added | James Hollis | The windmill was invented long before 1880. It dates back to antiquity. | |
| Sep 24, 2018 at 17:20 | comment | added | jamesqf | @Joe: And if you grew up in the rural northeast (some decades ago), you probably had the experience of hiking through woods and coming upon stone walls and foundations of long-abandoned farmhouses. Once you had all that agricultural tech, most farming simply wasn't profitable there. The farmers that stayed mostly became dairy farmers. | |
| Sep 24, 2018 at 13:35 | comment | added | Pliny | This is what I thought of when I read this question | |
| Sep 24, 2018 at 13:22 | history | edited | user20787 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Sep 24, 2018 at 8:47 | history | answered | user20787 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |