1886-1887 decimated Montana's cattle industry. The ranchers who survived began to fence in their ranches and the era of the open range came to an end. The memories of cattle ranching form an important part of Montana's modern identity. Farming By 1908, the open range that had sustained Native American tribes and government-subsidized cattle barons was pockmarked with small ranchers and struggling farmers. The revised Homestead Act of the early 1900s greatly affected the settlement of Montana. This act expanded the land that was provided by the Homestead Act of 1862 from 160acres to 320 (). When the latter act was signed by President William Taft, it also reduced the time necessary to prove up from five years to three years and permitted five months absence from the claim each year. In 1908, the Sun River Irrigation Project, west of Great Falls was opened up for homesteading. Similar irrigation projects developed in many other Montana communities. Under this Reclamation Act, a person could obtain . Most of the people who came to file on these homesteads were young couples who were eager to live near the mountains where hunting and fishing were good. Many of these homesteaders came from the Midwest and Minnesota. Farming was further encouraged by the railroads. Wheat farming started slowly in Montana, only replacing oats as the major grain crop after development of new plant strains, techniques, and machinery. Wheat was stimulated by boom prices in World War I, but slumped in value and yield during the drought and depression of the next 20 years. Beginning in 1905, the Great Northern Railway in cooperation with the US Department of Agriculture, the Montana Experiment Station, and the Dryland Farming Congress promoted dryland farming in Montana in order to increase its freight traffic. During 1910–13, the Great Northern launched its own program of demonstration farms, which stimulated settlement (during 1909–10 acreage in homesteads quadrupled in Montana) through their impressive production rates for winter wheat, barley, oats and other grains. As a result of the promotion the land along the Milk River, the northern tier, better known as the "hi‑line", was settled in 1900–15. In an area better suited to grazing cattle, inexperienced newcomers locally called "Honyockers" undertook to grow wheat, and met some early success when ample rainfall and high prices were the rule. For several years after 1918, droughts and hot winds destroyed the crops, bringing severe