LAND OF PLENTY: The American Farm Story

There are four million farms in America today. How did they develop? What factors influenced their choice of crops? What inventions revolutionized the entire industry? How and when did livestock enter the picture? These are but a few of the major questions answered by a former editor-in-chief of The Farm Journal in an extensive survey of farming from the survival problems of the early pioneers to the surplus problems of today. The American Farm Story encompasses the development, decline and resurgence of the South, the transition from ""muscle power to engine power"", the growth of the first cotton, tobacco and corn crops, the effects of economic depression on the farmer and that of destructive insects on his crops. Over the years stress has been placed on conservation, education and cooperative farm organization in an industry which has realized the dream of the immigrants who founded it -- to farm and own a stretch of fertile land. The author has taken a large body of information and unified it in direct factual terms for those concerned with agriculture or with that segment of American history. Only brief mention is given to the trend toward giant farm combines today.