Word: soils
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...gradual settling of the prairies ended Mennonite isolation. Good crops brought prosperity. Neighbor vied with Mennonite neighbor for such worldly possessions as automobiles and radios. Children brought home new ideas. Old-line Mennonites shook their heads over marriages outside the fold, the trend away from the soil. Then, in World War II, 50% of the young Mennonites deserted the sect's pacifist principles and joined the armed services...
...shiny, modernistic office building in Mexico City's Avenida Morelos, the men of the Department of Soil Conservation studied their maps, graphs and statistics, concluded that the chances were small that the Mexican land would feed its people well. Four hundred years ago Cortes had reported that the richness of Mexico was inexhaustible. Since then, the pine forests that held rain water on the mountain slopes have been cut away. The result has been drought. The Indians have lost their skill in terracing their fields, and their lands are gullied and eroded...
...Cortes' time, the Indians planted their crops in 16 inches of topsoil. Now they count themselves lucky if they plant in six. Corn, grown year after year on the same plots, has sapped the goodness from the soil. In the current Harper's Magazine, William Vogt, chief of the conservation section of the Pan American Union, warns that "unless there is a profound modification in its treatment of the land, the greater part of Mexico will be a desert within 100 years." (The peril, warned Vogt, hangs over all Latin America...
...still the world's outstanding literary prize, and the only one of true international importance. Some critics have complained that the awards have concentrated on authors of distinction in small countries and have overemphasized a kind of contemporary fiction purporting to show simple peasants living close to the soil...
...Kellogg does not believe, as some theorists do, that soil deterioration caused the fall of older civilizations. When soil goes to pot, the causes lie deeper than farming practices, he says. "Generally, when a rural population becomes poverty-stricken, it fails to maintain its soil. An exploited people pass on their suffering to the land. Low prices, disease and wars are all important causes. Things get on a hand-to-mouth or year-to-year basis . . . Where farmers can take a long view of production, there are very few instances of conflict between those practices that give most return...