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5. Underline the words that tell what a settler did to earn free land under the Homestead Act. were too many cattle for sale, the price of beef went down. The cattle industry continued, but it was changed forever. Farmers Settle the Plains 
The people who first came to the Great Plains did not think it was good farmland. The Great Plains were known as the "Great American Desert." The land was dry and had few trees. Even so, farmers began to settle there in the late 1860s. There were several reasons. Lots of rain, free land, and easy travel on the railroads encouraged people to move west to farm the land in the 1860s and 1870s.