Throughout American history, the development of plantations (farms) in the American colonies arrived as immigrants arrived in small farms. The American people settled on the land west of the Mississippi for many diverse reasons. As the years went, by the profit and demand for crops such as tobacco grew larger. At that time, large plantation could had over 400 acres of fields growing anything from tobacco to maize and sugarcane(in the south), as the myths reveal. The farmers were also in ...view middle of the document...
Early explorers thought that the country beyond the Mississippi River was unfit for civilization. Consequently, the Great Plains region became known as "The Great American Desert." Americans first moved west of the Mississippi in large numbers as a result of the Panic of 1819, Because of the Panic, many southern farmers went into debt. To escape creditors, many of these farmers fled into eastern Texas and were welcomed by the Mexican government.As technology grew, new inventions made life easier on the farm land. For example, John Deere's steel plow enabled mid-western farmers to cultivate tough prairie soils that had resisted cast-iron implements. The steel surface of the plow kept soil from sticking, thus making farming the prairies of the Midwest easier. Cyrus McCormick's mechanical reaper offered an enormous saving in the labor required for harvesting grain. The first successful harvester, the cord binder, cut and tied bundles of grain, enabling two men and a team of horses to harvest 20 acres of wheat a day. I really think that the farms in the American west had the most impact than the ranchers. Although the ranchers did a lot to control the land and to make sure that people were somewhat created equal, food was in demand, which the farmers possessed. In my opinion, the farmers played the greatest role in the West.
