Recognizing the challenge of cultivating marginal arid land, the United States government expanded on the offered under the Homestead Act – granting to homesteaders in western Nebraska under the Kinkaid Act (1904) and elsewhere in the Great Plains under the Enlarged Homestead Act of 1909. Waves of European settlers arrived in the plains at the beginning of the 20th century. A return of unusually wet weather seemingly confirmed a previously held opinion that the "formerly" semiarid area could support large-scale agriculture. At the same time, technological improvements such as mechanized plowing and mechanized harvesting made it possible to operate larger properties without increasing labor costs.