THE FARM 313 



Corn was once the sole crop of the season on the western 

 farms as cotton has been on the southern plantations, and 

 there was an accompanying impoverishment of the soil. 

 Financial distress followed from crop failures and from low 

 prices. As diversified farming has replaced this practice 

 more and more, and suitable rotation of crops has taken the 

 place of a one-crop system, improvement in agricultural 

 conditions has been marked. 



FIG. 101. Corn production of the world. (Robbins.) 



In 1916 the world's production was 3,818,700,000 bushels. (U. S. Department 



of Agriculture.'} 



Need of conservation of the fertility of soils that were 

 formerly regarded as inexhaustible in crop capacity has 

 become too apparent to ignore. It has been found that by 

 the use of alfalfa (or other plants of the same family of 

 legumes), and by the rotation of crops, materials for plant 

 food are restored to the soil. Through the agency of 

 " nitrogen-fixing" bacteria, soil fertility can be maintained 

 in a degree somewhat comparable with the improvement of 

 soils in the dairy districts through the use of barnyard 

 fertilizer. 



The corn-growing districts of the world are limited by 



