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When Walter Prescott Webb wrote about the Great Plains, he argued that three technological innovations made exploitation of the plains possible: the six-shooter, barbed wire, and the windmill. Two of the three were directly related to the raising of livestock. Barbed wire made the division of lands into discrete properties possible, but the windmill was crucial to dispersing livestock around the countryside. Without having far-flung water sources, livestock would congregate in too close and cramped a quarters; with windmills, it was possible to extract water reliably (and automatically) from near-surface aquifers.
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