First picture taken from http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/civil/jb_civil_homested_1.html
Second picture taken from http://www.lisarivero.com/2013/02/09/the-homestead-act-of-1862/
Second picture taken from http://www.lisarivero.com/2013/02/09/the-homestead-act-of-1862/
The Homestead Act was based on an economy of agriculture based off of farming and marketing. Harsh living conditions affected the agriculture. This included dry soil that led to limited food sources for homesteaders with requirements to cultivate the land. Crops were grown on the farm areas due to skill in agriculture. This provided a gate way to new crops that wouldn't have existed in these areas if it wasn’t for the Homestead Act. "Lay out said land in a suitable and enduring manner so that the same may be maintained as an appropriate monument to retain for posterity a proper memorial emblematical of the hardships and the pioneer life through which the early settlers passed in the settlement, cultivation and civilization of the Great West" (Homestead National Monument of America). The layout of the land now consisted of Homesteader's cultivated plots of land.
With land being bought out by railroad owners and with the style of the time pollution became an issue for the economy. In building these railroads the bison and animals that were present before were wiped out leading to hunger for Native Americans as well as homesteaders nearby. The economy also had people who were continuously farming with no experience or with tough ground created dry and unhinged soil. These practices lead to the economy crashing in the time of the Dust Bowl. Lincoln said that the Homestead Act had bonded the Union. Hamilton said that he was a witness to all of this “magical municipal development and could scarcely realize the miracle that was being unfolded before me…the energy that the individual members of the community displayed, each for himself, resulting in the greatest benefit for the community as a whole" ("Hamilton S. Wicks" 203-206). He saw the Homestead Act as a turning point for America in the since that the economy would be impact and changed by the magic in the process.
Taken from http://www.lisarivero.com/2013/02/09/the-homestead-act-of-1862/