Since they needed logs to build their cabins, most pioneers shunned the prairies and settled near the forests. But when the woodlands were fully occupied, settlers were forced to try farming on the prairies. At that time, it was widely believed the treeless prairie land would not be fertile enough to support crops. But the new farmers quickly discovered the prairie soil was rich beyond their dreams. Plowing the thick, gummy sod, however, was a frustrating chore. Wooden plows broke, and the "gumbo," as the sod was called, clung stubbornly to iron plowshares. Then, in 1837, a young Illinois blacksmith named John Deere invented a new type of polished steel plow that cut effortlessly and cleanly through the prairie sod. Deere built a factory in the town of Moline to manufacture his new plows and eventually became a millionaire.
The fertility of the black prairie soil so astounded farmers that they wrote excited letters to relatives who owned less-productive farms in other parts of the country. Mattie Huffman recalled:
Usually, it took the strength of several yoke of oxen and several hardy farmhands to push the plow through the rigid soil. Turning a strip of sod twenty to thirty inches wide, the farmers were ready to sow their seeds. "We prepared the soil for planting with a breaking plow." explained Mrs. J. H. O'Loughlin, "and then used an ax or hatchet to make a hole in the sod, then dropped the seed and closed the hole with our heels. The ground squirrels got part of our seed, but we had very good crops the first year. The next year we ran the sod cutter over this ground, harrowed it, and then seeded it with wheat."