Alex Hassen, Drew Arciuolo

The rebuilding of the post- Civil War South.

Invented by John Appleby, the twine binder was used to tie the top of a shock of wheat together for easier handling and transport. It increased the speed at which crops could be harvested.

Large-scale commercial farming where farmers used advanced technology and abundant land out west to grow and sell more crops than ever. This began the industry of farmers working directly for companies to mass-produce items and food products.

Due to drought in the west, the technique of "dry farming" was developed. In order to adapt to the arid plains the farmers used shallow cultivation.

Joseph F. Glidden invented barbed war in order to create barriers for farming in the treeless desert.

The combined reaper-thresher was a farming tool that was drawn by twenty to forty horses and which both reaped and bagged the grain. It sped up the process of farming exponentially.

The steam engine allowed farmers to drag behind it simultaneously the plow, seeder, and harrow.

The Homestead Act granted government land to private owners for little cost. It was designed to settle open space and encourage home farming.

Acts granted by Congress to build train tracks and telegraph lines from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. The railroads received over 175 million square miles of public land, this created a new and efficient way for farmers out west to send their crops at lower prices to cities in the East.

This was a treaty between the U.S. and the Lakota Indians. The two parties came to an agreement to give the Lakota people the Black Hills and hunting rights in South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. However, migrant workers looking for gold had crossed the Lakota borders, in violation of the treaty. Indians had assaulted these workers, also in violation of the treaty. War would soon follow. The U.S. government then seized the Black Hills land in 1877. The dispute over the land between the Lakota Indians and the U.S. can still be found in courts today.