Answer:
(a) The dramatic expansion of wheat production was largely due to new technology. To break the sod and turn the soil over, a variety of new ploughs were devised locally, some of them 12 feet long. Their dramatic rested on small wheels and they were hitched onto six yokes of oxen or horses. (b) By the early 20· century, farmers in the Great Plains were breaking the ground with tractors and disk ploughs, clearing vast stretches for wheat cultivation. (c) Before the 1830's, grain was harvested with a cradle or sickle. But in 1831, Cyrus McCormick invented the first mechanical reaper which could cut as much as 5 men could cut with cradles and 16 men with sickles. (d) By the early 20· century, most farmers were using combined harvesters to cut grain. With one of these machines, 500 acres of wheat could be harvested in two weeks. (e) The new machines allowed the farmers to rapidly clear large tracts, break up the soil, remove the grass and prepare the ground for cultivation. The work could be done quickly and with a minimal number of hands. With power-driven machinery, four men could plough, seed and harvest 2,000 to 4,000 acres of wheat in a season. (f) The spread of railways also made it easy to transport grain from the wheat-growing regions to the eastern coast for export. Increasing demand due to the an expanding urban population and outbreak of the First World War encouraged farmers to expand wheat cultivation and was also responsible for a dramatic expansion in America's wheat production.
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