USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The introduction of barbed wire had an adverse impact on the cultures that had subsisted on the open spaces. Plains tribes and the buffalo herds they followed could no longer move freely across the now-vanishing expanses and ranchers had nowhere left to graze or even herd their cattle on the long cattle drives.

Detailed explanation-2: -The development of the railroad made it profitable to raise cattle on the Great Plains. In 1860, some five-million longhorn cattle grazed in the Lone Star state. Cattle that could be bought for $3 to $5 a head in Texas could be sold for $30 to $50 at railroad shipping points in Abilene or Dodge City in Kansas.

Detailed explanation-3: -The widespread use of barbed wire changed life on the Great Plains dramatically and permanently. Land and water once open to all was fenced off by ranchers and homesteaders with predictable results.

Detailed explanation-4: -Barbed Wire Helped Create Large-Scale Cattle Producers So effective was barbed wire at keeping the animals contained that it allowed farmers to increase the size of their herds. Animals were not lost as often as they were on the open range when they were vulnerable to predators and cattle rustlers.