Question

1. inventions and

improvements in
farm technology
john deere’s steel plow – could cut through heavy soil;
cyrus mccormick’s mechanical reaper – cut crops faster;
spring - toothed harrow, grain drill, barbed wire, corn binder (created
great efficiency – 183 minutes per bushel to just 10 minutes per bushel)

transformation of land was incremental until the industrial revolution. steel, engines and mass production resulted in farming
equipment that rapidly bent most of the planet’s land to the will of human beings. john deere’s early steel plows represent a
moment in time where stone age technology was upgraded into something of which henry ford certainly would have been proud.

in the 1830’s, young america was moving west and settling the prairie. farmland with rich, black soil stretched out like an ocean of grass. if that soil could be cultivated, fortunes could be made. one of the major obstacles was the soil itself. the plants of the
prairie had a tangle of tough roots up on the blade of a plow, requiring a farmer to stop every few minutes to clear it. the soil was stickier than the
soils back east. it tended to clump up on the blade of a plow, requiring a farmer to stop every few minutes to clear it.

the smooth surface of steel seemed like a logical alternative to coarser iron. steel could shed, or scour, the sticky black prairie soils. another illinoisan blacksmith, john lane, is credited as among the first inventors of the steel plow in 1833. lane’s was a
success in the sense that farmers wanted to buy his plows, but lane never moved beyond making plows one at a time (which was how
all plows were made).

a shift from that thinking into industrial - scale production was what made john deere’s name synonymous with farm technology.

jackson landers, smithsonianmag.com, december 2014

according to the passage, what impact did the steel plow have on the great plains?

Explanation:

To answer this, we analyze the passage:

1. The passage states that standard plows had difficulty cutting through the rich, black soil of the Great Plains (due to sticky soil and tough roots clumping on the plow blade, requiring frequent stops).
2. John Deere’s steel plow could cut through heavy soil. The smooth steel surface could shed the sticky black soil, so it overcame the soil - related obstacle that standard plows faced. This allowed farmers to cultivate the prairie soil more effectively, which was crucial as young America was moving west to settle the prairie and wanted to make fortunes by cultivating this land. In short, the steel plow enabled easier and more efficient cultivation of the Great Plains' tough soil, facilitating westward settlement and farming on the prairie.

Answer:

The steel plow could cut through the heavy, sticky soil of the Great Plains (that standard plows struggled with), overcame the soil - related obstacle to cultivation, and enabled more efficient farming on the prairie, which facilitated westward settlement as people sought to cultivate the rich prairie land for profit.