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.The lowest-rated countiesin Iowa were better than the highest-ranking counties in nine other states.The number of tractors in Iowa doubled between 1930 and 1940, and Iowafarmers eagerly adopted hybrid corn and oats that were more resistant todrought and insects.Yields of corn on average increased from 40 bushelsper acre in 1933 to 60 bushels per acre in 1943.Whereas only 1 percent ofIowan corn had been hybrid in 1933, only 10 years later hybrid corn rep-resented 99 percent of the total production.Farm sizes increased from anaverage of 151 acres in 1900 to 160 in 1940, but the number of farms duringthat period dropped from only 228,622 to 213,318.At the same time, thevalue of Iowa s farms was more than double the national average in 1940.Farmers further benefited from federal government programs during the1930s that promoted  soil conservation, balanced output, crop loans, mar-keting agreements, extended uses for farm products, crop insurance, andrural security. 12 The number of farms with electricity in Iowa increasedfrom 25 percent in 1934 to 33 percent in 1944.By 1941, three-quarters ofIowa s rural publication had access to a public library.WORLD WAR IIWorld War II revitalized the Mississippi Valley as the economy of theregion was geared toward military production.In St.Louis, the McDonnell180 Daily Life along the MississippiAircraft Corporation became the largest employer in the city.Thousandsof Louisianans in New Orleans built ships, including the famous land-ing crafts that were used in the D-Day invasion and the Pacific campaignagainst Japan.Four billion dollars worth of defense contracts poured intoMissouri alone.When the U.S.government initiated the Food for VictoryProgram, the prices for farm products shot up.The mechanization of agri-culture continued to spread south in the states bordering the lower Mis-sissippi River, tractors had plowed only 16 percent of the arable land in1939, but they plowed 42 percent in 1946.Electrification spread into ruralareas as well by 1945, half the farms in Iowa had electricity whereas onlya third did two years earlier.Nationwide, the income of the lowest-paid workers increased relativelyfaster than the income of the rich, but the rationing of meat and flour andother consumer products made every civilian a soldier on the home front.Women were encouraged to cook balanced meals with what little theyhad.Many of them planted victory gardens to help supplement theirfamily s diets.As millions of men joined or were drafted in the military,women took their places on farms and in the factories.The percentage offarm women in Iowa doing daily chores rose from 60 percent in 1941 to80 percent in 1943.During the war, about 13 percent of Iowa farm womenwere driving trucks and tractors and 29 percent were involved with live-stock, which had once been the purview of males.Sales of poultry andeggs by farm women rose by 500 percent.Since rationing provided fewopportunities for women to spend their money, the savings rates rose forAmerican families up and down the river.The Chinese community in Minnesota rallied in support of the wareffort despite suffering decades of discrimination by the U.S.govern-ment.In Minneapolis and St.Paul, Chinese immigrants sent 20 percentof their men into the American armed forces.Four hundred Chinese busi-nessmen formed the Twin Cities Chinese Emergency Relief Society andraised $45,000 for relief and $20,000 for military aid to the Chinese whobattled against the Japanese invasion.Since China was now an ally of theUnited States in the war against Imperial Japan, Congress repealed theExclusion Act that had limited Chinese immigration to this country.Forthe first time in a half a century, the Chinese felt welcomed in communitiesalong the Mississippi River.Although cotton prices increased, planters still found ways of keepingtheir tenant population in poverty.As historian Nan Elizabeth Woodruffhas described,  planters continued to steal their tenants parity checks, vio-late wage and crop arrangements, overcharge commissary accounts, andcheat them on cotton weights [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]