What did the railroads do with land grants?

Land grant maps were frequently used by land speculators to advertise railroad lands for sale to the public. As early as 1868 most western railroads established profitable land departments and bureaus of immigration, with offices in Europe, to sell land and promote foreign settlement in the western United States.



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At the same time that homesteaders were getting free land from the government, large tracts of land were granted to railroads by both the states and the federal government. The goal was to encourage the railroads to build their tracks where few people lived, and to help settle the country.

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Together, the Burlington and Union Pacific Railroads had sold more than 7 million acres to private purchasers. Over 9.6 million acres was obtained free of charge under the Homestead Act. The railroads did not abandon settlers after they sold them the land.

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Answer and Explanation: The railroads benefitted western farmers the most by connecting them and their farms to America's cities and markets. Farmers could now easily and quickly move their produce and farm goods to the cities to sell, and could import finished, manufactured goods from the industrial east.

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Receiving millions of acres of public lands from Congress, the railroads were assured land on which to lay the tracks and land to sell, the proceeds of which helped companies finance the construction of their railroads.

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Many attributed their problems to discriminatory railroad rates, monopoly prices charged for farm machinery and fertilizer, an oppressively high tariff, an unfair tax structure, an inflexible banking system, political corruption, corporations that bought up huge tracks of land.

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The railroads provided the efficient, relatively cheap transportation that made both farming and milling profitable. They also carried the foodstuffs and other products that the men and women living on the single-crop bonanza farms needed to live.

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