Question

The United States is a major food-producing nation. In 2001, more than 9.5 billion bushels of corn were grown in the United States. This map shows the percentage of land in each state that is used to grow crops. It does not, however, show how much of each crop is grown.

Using a Key: Which states use the highest percentage of land for growing crops?



Finding Locations: Where in the United States are most of the crops grown— the Midwest, the East Coast, or the West Coast?



Finding Locations: Near which geographic feature are more crops grown—the Rocky Mountains or the Mississippi River?



Inferring Relationships: In what ways might the location of rivers and mountains affect the location of agricultural activity?

Answer 1

Using the key: The highest percentages of land in crops are in Midwestern states — especially Iowa and Illinois, and also high in Nebraska, Indiana, Kansas, and the Dakotas.

Finding locations: Most crops are grown in the Midwest (the Corn Belt/Great Plains), not on the East or West Coasts.

Finding locations (feature): More crops are grown near the Mississippi River than near the Rocky Mountains.

Inferring relationships: Rivers and mountains affect agriculture by shaping soil, water availability, and terrain. River valleys and floodplains have deep, fertile alluvial soils, abundant water for irrigation, and flat land that’s easy to plant and to transport crops from (e.g., the Mississippi valley). Mountains have steep slopes, thinner soils, cooler temperatures, and uneven terrain, which limit large-scale crop farming (though irrigation and terraces can support some farming in mountain foothills). Climate patterns (rain shadow, elevation) created by mountains also influence where crops can be grown.