Growing Up On A Farm By Lauren Tarshis

Farming hasn’t always been as easy as it is today. Back in 1875, life as a farmer on the prairie was very difficult. The idea of Manifest Destiny is usually glorified, however, there were many challenges that go unmentioned. One such challenge is a major grasshopper attack on the Great Plains region of the United States. This grasshopper attack is detailed thoroughly in the article “Swarms of Terror” by Lauren Tarshis. Comparatively, the article “Growing Up on a Farm” by Ryder Staples and Jessica Press explains how life on a farm has improved in recent years. Farming technology has significantly advanced and has become very different from farm life in the 1800s. Life for Laura Ingalls wasn’t easy. She had many tasks to help out with on her

Some of Laura’s experiences on a farm at the time may include, “Each day the Ingalls family rose at dawn to care for their cows, horses, and chickens. Laura’s mother cooked, scrubbed, and sewed; Laura’s father often worked in the wheat fields until after the sun had set. Calluses from hauling buckets of water and raking hay covered Laura’s hands” (Tarshis 14). Now, however, technology exists to make farm life significantly easier. Staples explains some of the technology used on his farm to Press, stating that, “my dad and uncles use computerized mapping tools to determine exactly how much can grow on certain parts of the farm and how much-or how little-herbicide needs to be sprayed” (Staples and Press 18). This is important to understand because it teaches the reader about what life may have been like for a child living on a farm in the prairie at the time. This is certainly not a normal experience in modern times, even for a child living on a farm today. Many children still do chores for their parents, but not to the point of being physically injured. Tools and machines also exist now to make certain chores easier to complete, revolutionizing the farming