Walden

Chapter 11 Technology, Culture, and Everyday Life (1840-1860) Technology and Economic Growth ? Westward movement started to increase with John Deere?s steel tip plow that halved the labor to clear acres to till, making the hard soil better for farming. ? Wheat became as vital to the west as cotton to the south. ? Cyrus McCormick?s mechanical reaper harvested grain seven times faster and with half the labor required, further making wheat great for the west. This invention would also give an edge to the north in the war to come. ? Eli Whitney formulated a plan to manufacture muskets using interchangeable parts and unskilled labor, becoming a widely used method, and by 1851, Europeans had started to refer to manufacture by interchangeable parts as the ?American System.?