44 FARM MANAGEMENT 



distance to market or shipping point, market demand and 

 supply, relation of the type to other competing types in the 

 region, price of land, capital, labor supply, custom, insects, 

 diseases or other pests, and personal desires of the farmer. 



EXAMPLES OF THE INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE, SOIL, AND 

 TOPOGRAPHY 



These physical conditions are the most important factors 

 in determining the type of farming, but it is the combina- 

 tion of these with many other factors that settles the mat- 

 ter. The other factors may be so important as to result 

 in a type of farming very different from what the physi- 

 cal facts suggest. 



34. Corn. For corn-production, there is no other 

 large area of land in the world that has such a favorable 

 combination of soil, climate, and topography as is found 

 in the corn-belt of the United States. Corn requires a 

 mellow soil well supplied with vegetable matter, heavy 

 rainfall in the summer months, hot days, and hot nights. 

 In addition, if it is to be raised economically, the land 

 must be fairly level. The fact that it must be culti- 

 vated and must have abundant rain makes it an unsatis- 

 factory crop for hillsides, as the land will wash too much. 



On first thought, it would appear that one might supply 

 the plant food by fertilizers, and the water by irrigation, 

 but this is not so simple as at first appears. Corn requires 

 more organic matter than most crops. Fertilizers do not 

 take the place of organic matter. If the soil is not well 

 supplied with decaying vegetable matter, it is usually 

 necessary to supply it by adding farm manure or plowing 

 under sod. Some crops are much easier to raise with 

 fertilizers alone. 



