Press ESC to cancel. Useful tips. Esther Fleming February 3, Table of Contents. Previous Article What counties in Wisconsin have reformulated gas? Next Article What is an interesting fact about Kabul? Back To Top. There were not enough workers. Teams of 'sodbusters' using steel ploughs did the first ploughing. After , thresher teams travelled around following the harvest. Farmers could hire them for just a few days. Drought - There was only 38 cm of rainfall in a year, and the hot summers evaporated dampness from the land.
In the s there were terrible droughts, followed by fires. The well driller and windpump allowed deep wells to be dug, which gave water. New methods of dry farming were invented the 'Turkey Red' variety of wheat was imported from Russia, and farmers put a layer of dust on the soil after rain, which stopped evaporation.
Food - Farmers could not grow enough on their farms to feed a family. The government realised that acres was not enough to sustain people. The Timber Culture Act of gave farmers another free acres if they grew some trees. Fences - Lack of wood for fencing meant farmers could not keep cattle off their crops. This led to trouble with the cattlemen. That reaper was crude compared to the mighty machines that roar through the fields today, but it was a start on the way to simplify and speed up the harvesting of grain.
Easy: Farming became more easier with the new tools developed like the steel plow that break up hard soil and the reaping machine that made harvesting more easier. Cotton is considered as the most important thing when it comes to making human life more comfortable and easier than ever before. One of the problems was the land. The soil was much more difficult to farm in the Great Plains. Steel-tipped plows were invented to help farmers turn over the soil. A farm boy keeps the pump working The photo below shows a farm boy adjusting the pump mechanism at the base of a windmill.
The pump is on top of a metal pipe drilled down to the level of groundwater. That may be anywhere from about 20 to more than feet deep. If there is no wind, the pump can also work by moving the long handle up and down by hand. Barbed Wire Barbed wire, invented in , solved the problem of building fences on the Great Plains.
Wood for fences wasn't easily available, since there were not many trees in the region. Barbed wire was affordable and easy to put up. Railroads to the West Railroads were an important technological advance that made it possible to settle the West.
They could bring in supplies at an affordable price. They also made it possible for farmers to ship out their crops and ranchers to ship out their cattle. The double photo below is an old stereoscope card. It shows a train on the famous Transcontinental Railroad line that was completed to California in When looked at in a hand-held viewer like the one on the right, stereoscope cards gave a 3-D image of the scene. These cards and viewers were very popular in the late s and early s.
Spreading railroad lines to the West The heavy red lines on the map below show some of the railroads built into the West during the s and s. Many more lines were built later. Wheat farming Farmers needed a crop that would grow well in the dry, hot summers of the Great Plains. Wheat was the crop that best fit the climate conditions.
The wheat grains at the top of the plant are ground into flour that is used to make bread, cereal, and many other foods.
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