Word: loam
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Much of the mood in Minnesota has to do with the comparatively unspoiled land. Southern Minnesota is an expanse of rolling countryside, a patchwork of rectangular fields, the loam that has made Minnesota the country's third largest corn producer (after Iowa and Nebraska), the soil that yields 100 bushels of corn and 40 bushels of soybeans to the acre. To the north and west, the land flattens into prairies that merge going eastward, with hills of nearly primeval forest. The northwestern lands are more sandy, but rich enough to produce ample crops of wheat...
...which is also the track record at Belmont Park, set by Gallant Man in 1957. The Belmont track is extremely fast this year for some reason -possibly because of the unusually heavy spring rains that have packed the surface, possibly because of the particular combination of sand and loam and clay that is being used...
...months, across much of the nation's farm belt, crops and livestock have been savaged by freezing weather, ice storms and incessant rain. Record floods turned vast stretches of rich loam into great bogs of mud, delaying or barring altogether the planting of spring crops. The weather has at last turned bright, and farmers are racing to make up for lost time. But opinions now differ as to whether enough corn and other crops will be produced this year to boost supplies and hold down soaring food prices...
...typical 154-lb. American requires no less than .4 acres of prime farm land to provide him with a decent balanced diet. But by far the best agricultural land tends to be near cities, where pioneers first settled. Thus when population rises, vast new subdivisions are built on precious loam. Then, to boost the productivity of the remaining rich cropland, farms are mechanized. By so doing, says Watt, society wrongly assumes that there will always be enough energy readily available to produce chemical fertilizers and run farm machines...