CHAPTER 18 

 CHOICE OF A REGION 



PROSPERITY OF THE COMMUNITY 



THERE are areas where farmers have nearly always pros- 

 pered. Some years have been better than others, but the 

 farmers have rarely failed to live comfortably. Such 

 regions as the Connecticut valley, the limestone soils of 

 Pennsylvania and Kentucky, the north part of western 

 New York (where again the soils are well supplied with 

 lime), the black prairie soils of the corn-belt, the Red River 

 valley of the North, and the river valleys of the Eastern 

 States are some of the regions where success has been fair 

 in bad times, and good in good times. In such regions, the 

 farmers live in comfortable houses, have good schools, and 

 send their sons and daughters to college. The valleys of 

 the Rhine and of the Nile have always been the last to feel 

 adversity. The chances of success are greater if one goes 

 to a region where success is the common lot, than if he goes 

 where success is rare. 



On the other extreme, there are regions where many an 

 able man struggles along a lifetime against impossible odds. 

 Men are always pushing up into the hills and mountains 

 and into the deserts and on to the barren lands, and fight- 

 ing with forest and drought. Sometimes the efforts are 

 successful. In many places, attempts are made to farm 

 land that should be used for forests or pasture. The 

 abandoned farms in some places in the Eastern and South- 



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