8 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



the North Central states, but also, on occasion, some of their near neigh- 

 bors as well. The term Middle West, however, if interpreted with reason- 

 able elasticity, sets satisfactory limits to the scope of this study. 



Obviously, anyone who wishes to understand the agricultural discontent 

 of the Middle West must know something about the way of life that 

 produced it. By 1900 American agriculture was "coming of age"; the era 

 of pioneering was almost over, and each section had begun to realize what 

 it could do best. While "general farming," defined by the census as that 

 in which "no one source of income . . . represents so much as 40 per cent 

 of the total value of products of the farm," was common throughout the 

 Middle West, the tendency lay in the direction of some type of specialized 

 farming particularly suited to the climate, soil, and location of the area 

 concerned. 6 Indeed, the ordinary observer was surprised to discover that, 

 in spite of the fact that nearly every farm grew a considerable variety of 

 crops, there was an unmistakable tendency, region by region, to emphasize 

 one crop above all others. It would overstate the case to compare the farm 

 economy of the Middle West with the one-crop system of the cotton 

 South, but in actual practice one of three principal activities absorbed the 

 chief energies of most of these western farmers. Some of them grew corn, 

 either to sell directly or to feed and sell as livestock; others devoted them- 

 selves mainly to the production of wheat; still others raised dairy cattle 

 and made their living by selling milk and butterfat. Thus all three types 

 of farmers, in spite of the numerous minor activities characteristic of most 

 of the better farms, depended for their prosperity upon the marketing of 

 a money crop. 



The corn belt cuts a wide swath on any crop map of the United States. 

 Centering in Iowa, all of which it includes, it extends westward into 

 eastern Nebraska and southeastern South Dakota, northward into south- 

 ern Minnesota, southward into northern Missouri, and eastward across 

 northern and central Illinois on into Indiana and Ohio. In general, the 

 corn farmer had much to be thankful for. He got a larger yield per acre 

 for his labor than any other cereal grower, his crop season was long enough 

 to keep him and his "hands" fully occupied most of the year, he had few 

 problems of storage, and his marketing difficulties were minimum. If he 



6. Foster F. Elliott, Types of Farming in the United States, U. S. Bureau of the 

 Census (Washington, 1933), p. 48. 



