The most important factor in allowing farmers to settle the great plains was the...?

Question

1 - easiness of farming on the plains
2 - decline of cattle ranching
3 - the abundance of fertile soil
4 - transcontinental railroads
or 5 - scarcity of indian attacks

Answer 1

2 - decline of cattle ranching

Answer 2

Discovery of the Ogallala aquafer under the Great Plains.

They knew it would be easy to farm, IF they had water.
They knew the soil was fertile, IF only they had water.
The other three factors were not as important.

But the MOST important factor was discovery of a reliable water source.

The farmers along the rivers had no problem. They dug irrigation ditches. But the farmers west of the Missouri and Mississippi east of the Rockies had a real problem. However, the Ogallala aquafer extends from North Dakota all the way down to Texas. When they found out they could dig a well almost anywhere along the line, farming boomed.

Answer 3

Oh, "3" of course. That, and the invention of the effective iron plow (by John Deere), which allowed them to cut through and till the dense, centuries-old sod of the plains.
The rest are just wrong ... it was not easy, cattle ranching was thriving, the transcontinental railroad wasn't completed yet, and the Indians were pretty fierce, still.

Answer 4

Your [1} and [3] are really part of the same answer. The fertile soil of the area was easily farmed because of John Deere's creation of the stel plow.

Answer 5

no.3

Answer 6

(4)

The ability to purchase or settle on land for free based on the grants given to the expanding rail networks allowed poor members of eastern US society to move west at very cost.

It also inspired people to settle and develop rather to continue to move on.

Answer 7

no.3 i think, is that true?