CHAPTER V 



THE DIVISION OF SOILS AND THE 

 SPECIALIZATION OF CROPS 



SIDE by side with reclamation of waste land 

 we have the task of increasing the efficiency 

 of the individual acre. There is no ethics con- 

 cerned with the movement. It is wholly com- 

 mercial. The world must be fed, yet the only 

 means the world at large has of enforcing its 

 demands for food lies in dollars and cents. 

 The more hungry, the greater the price of 

 food, the greater the inducement to the farmer 

 to clear waste land for cultivation or to in- 

 crease the efficiency of the land he already 

 cultivates. Expediency resolves the equation 

 in the end. 



The success of huge industrial combinations 

 depends primarily upon their ability to control 

 production, to attune their output to the pop- 

 ular demand. Nearly seven million farmers 

 are engaged in producing food in the United 



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