What farm in your neighborhood comes nearest to meeting your requirements in these matters? Explain fully why.
Make a sketch map of a farm in your neighborhood, preferably one upon which you have lived, showing as nearly as you can the boundaries, the position of highlands and lowlands, marshes, timber, streams, etc. Also the position of house, barns, bridges, roads, and other important features.
Did the features of the land indicated on your map determine the location of the buildings? of the roads and bridges? the kinds of crops raised on different parts of the farm?
Should the surface features of the land be taken into account in determining the position of the house and barns in relation to each other? Why?
Has the character of the land influenced the life of the farmer's family in any way? Explain.
IMPORTANCE OF GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS
Directly or indirectly, geographical conditions affect every aspect of community life and help or hinder us in satisfying all of our wants (see Chapter I). Their influence is chiefly felt, however, in their relation to the economic interest of the people; that is, in relation to earning a living and the production of wealth.
ESTABLISHING RELATIONS WITH THE LAND
Every step that man has taken to make his relations with the land permanent and definite has been a step of progress in civilization, as when, for example, the savage hunter became a herdsman, or the herdsman an agriculturist. We live to-day in an age of machinery, which is a result of turning to our use the metals from the depths of the earth and the power derived from the forces of nature, as in the application of steam, electricity, and the explosive force of gasoline. Many have had a part in this work of establishing relations with the land: explorers; scientists who have discovered the uses of our varied mineral and vegetable resources and how to make the forces of nature serve us; engineers who have built our railroads and bridges and tunneled our mountains. A most important part has been taken by those who win their living directly from nature's resources—the woodsman, the miner, the farmer; and the service of the farmer has been especially great in giving stability to our community life.