WARTIME FARMING IN THE CORN BELT

this is the corn belt a quarter of a million square miles of fertile land extending from Central Ohio west to central Nebraska and from southern Minnesota South to Central Missouri the biggest piece of fine farmland in the world with a good agricultural climate a land of corn and hogs and a hundred other crops to feed the world that's why the United Nations look to the Corn Belt today for a good part of all the food they need to win the war a hundred crops to beat the axis that's going to put a strain on our land but we can do it we've got to do it we did the same job the last war we used mass production we grew corn and wheat and other crops on every acre we had under the plow and then we broke out new land with fine straight furrows we thought that was the right way to farm in those days we had to break out new land or we thought we did to grow the food that Uncle Sam had to have and after the war we kept right on farming was getting to be big business and we went in for expansion we did a good job of it and we were proud of our farms proud of our production of course when it rained that was another story naturally a lot of topsoil washed away the furrows ran straight and threw up and downhill all right but the topsoil ran only one way many a good field was cut by gullies and sheet erosion ruined a lot more we began to notice we had to work harder use more fertilizer to get a crop then we began to realize that maybe we hadn't been doing such a good job of farming after all we hadn't been taking good care of our land we found the topsoil washed down hill and dropped his silt won't grow corn poor land means poor crops and poor farmers too and a lot of us were getting poorer pretty fast but with low prices and sick land in the last 10 or 15 years quite a number have moved on trying to find new places and good soil you can't make a living out of gullies today we're doing things differently we're all working together to produce the right amounts of the right crops on time we're making our farm program work we're using conservation farming methods taking better care of our soil that's the only way we'll meet our food production goals the only way we can raise the food the United Nations need take terracing and contour cultivation for example they stop erosion but they do more than that by holding the topsoil fertilizer and water on the fields we get bigger yields per acre niggles per acre now when we need them most on pasture land furs hold the water and make better grazing earthen dams are easy to build and useful they hold back water they make stock water pools and store water for irrigation if it's needed and grass we're growing more grass all the time because it's a crop as well as a conservation measure and good grass pasture is a good inexpensive way to feed harms a lot of us are planting cover crops between the rows after the corns been cut then we plow it under it's a soil conditioner that's one way to build up run down land and keep good land good simple and easy and good conservation farming that's the sort of thing conservation farming is after all a big thing that helps us do big things but some of the best practices are as simple and easy as ABC like putting manure and fertilizer and lime on the fields these simple practices are important to America and the United Nations especially now we found we can get more corn per acre more soybeans and more of just about everything we grow using these simple conservation practices this means that if we use these methods generally we will surely meet our food for freedom goals food for freedom that's a good slogan a battlecry for the farmers of america and it makes sense to if we want to win this war we've got to be strong tough and husky so we've got to produce food and a lot of it's got to come from the Corn Belt we've got to grow more corn we've got to grow more soybeans we need soybeans for all kinds of food products for salad and cooking oils we've got to grow more beans more Tomatoes more onions more of all kinds of vegetables and fruits we've got to produce more milk and more butter to a more dried milk to ship overseas and more cheese an important concentrated food more eggs too they dry them now to ship across the ocean but they are still eggs and tastes mighty good to a hungry man we need more meat more beef and more pork for soldiers sailors and civilians something that will stick to their ribs and keep them strong in husky food is an important part of the material of war and since the only way we can produce the added food we need is through conservation farming methods that's what a lot of us are doing because we've got to keep them growing we've got to keep them rolling by the trainload and by the ship load we've got to send food all over the world food for the United Nations food for freedom here are some of the boys who are standing guard and fighting for us here and on the other side of the world they look husky and it's our job to help keep them that way by growing the food they need we've got to keep our bombers flying too that takes men and men need food those strips curving around the hillsides are a symbol of the new conservation farming that is helping the farmers of america produce while men in flying fortresses are doing their job farmers are doing theirs all over America more and more farmers are using conservation methods to produce the added food we need to keep them flying and fighting food for freedom