Question

Which statement explains how a factor in the natural environment affected the efforts of farmers attempting to move to the Central and Great Plains in the 1870s and 1880s? Choose only one. (A) These years experienced an extreme drought that made it harder for farmers to raise crops on the western Plains. (B) Regional flooding in these years made western rivers unnavigable for steamboats, making it impossible for western farmers to ship their crops to market. (C) The boll weevil first appeared in Texas and spread across the state in these decades, destroying the cotton fields that farmers had begun cultivating on the western Plains. (D) These years received more rainfall than usual, making it easier for farmers to grow on the western Plains.

Answer 1

A. These years experienced an extreme drought that made it harder for farmers to raise crops on the western Plains. The severe droughts of the 1870s–1880s led to crop failures and hardship for many settlers on the Great Plains.