The Homestead Act of 1862 gave beads of families or individuals aged twe

游客2024-01-05  18

问题         The Homestead Act of 1862 gave beads of families or individuals aged twenty-one or
    older the right to own 160 acres of public land in the western United States after five years
    of residence and improvement. This law was intended to provide land for small farmers
       and to prevent land from being bought for resale at a profit or being owned by large
(5)    landholders. An early amendment to the act even prevented husbands and wives from
    filing separate claims. The West, land reformers had assumed, would soon contain many
    160-acre family farms.
         They were doomed to disappointment. Most landless Americans were too poor to
    become farmers even when they could obtain land without cost. The expense of moving a
(10)   family to the ever-receding frontier exceeded the means of many, and the cost of tools,
    draft animals, a wagon, a well, fencing, and of building the simplest house, might come
    to $1,000---a formidable barrier. As for the industrial workers for whom the free land was
    supposed to provide a "safety valve," they had neither the skills nor the inclination to
    become farmers. Homesteaders usually came from districts not far removed from frontier
(15)   conditions. And despite the intent of the law, speculators often managed to obtain large
    tracts. They hired people to stake out claims, falsely swear that they had fulfilled the
    conditions laid down in the law for obtaining legal title, and then deed the land over to
    their employers.
        Furthermore, 160 acres were not enough for raising livestock or for the kind of
(20)   commercial agriculture that was developing west of the Mississippi. The national
    government made a feeble attempt to make larger holdings available to homesteaders
    by passing the Timber Culture Act of 1873, which permitted individuals to claim an
    additional 160 acres if they would agree to plant a quarter of it in trees within ten years.
    This law proved helpful to some farmers in the largely treeless states of Kansas,
(25)   Nebraska, and the Dakotas. Nevertheless, fewer than 25 percent of the 245,000 who
    took up land under the Act obtained final title to the property.

选项 A、How it transformed the western United States into a place of small farms
B、Why it was an improvement over previous attempts at land reform
C、Why it did not achieve its aim to provide land for small farmers
D、How it failed in the largely treeless states of Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas

答案 C

解析
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