Midwestern Migrant farmers may have difficulty adapting to the new type of soil and different seed type and crops. If the immigrant is from Mexico he might find more comfort growing the plants he knows about, more so than planting some different plant on <em>foreign </em>soil.
Even if the migrant is not from Mexico, that in the context of this question he/she would probably be. They could still find difficulty planting there. Because of different crops, climate, and plants.
The American West was indeed a land of great opportunity from 1865 to 1900 in the sense that there was an abundance of land and resources available to all those willing to go west.
