Answer:
The
dramatic expansion in American wheat production was due to use of new
technology.
To break the sod and turn the soil over, a variety of new ploughs were
devised locally, some of them 12 ft long. Their front rested on small wheels and
they were hitched onto six yokes of oxen or horses.
(ii) By the early 20th century, farmers in the great
plains were breaking the ground with tractors and disk ploughs for wheat
cultivation.
(iii) Before the 1830s, the grain used to harvested with a
cradle or sickle. But the mechanical reaper invented by Cyrus McCormick in
1831, could cut in 1 day as much as 5 men could cut with cradles and 16 men
with sickles.
(iv) By the early 20th century, big farmers used
combined harvester, power driven machinery to plough vast areas of land
for wheat production.
The Indian farmers were reluctant to grow
opium because of the following reasons
(i)The crop had to be grown on the best land, on the fields
that lay near the villages and were well mannered. On this, the farmers usually
produced pulses. If they planted opium on this land, then pulses could not be
grown there or they would have to be grown on inferior land where harvests were
poorer and uncertain.
(ii) Many cultivators owned no land. To cultivate opium
they had to pay rent and lease land from landlords and the rent charged on good
lands near the villages was very high.
(iii) The cultivation of opium was a difficult process.
The plant was delicate and cultivators had to spend
long hours, in nurturing it. This meant that they did not have enough time to
care for other crops.
(iv) The price which the government paid to the cultivators
for the opium they produced was very low. It was unprofitable for the
cultivators to grow opium at that price.
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