ELEMENTARY GEOGRAPHY Part Five: Plants we grow A farm in Giles County The next time you ride across the state, look out the window at the farms you pass. Can you tell what kind of plants, or crops, you are looking at in those fields? Perhaps not. This is as good a time to learn as any. Cotton is one of the most common crops in West Tennessee. In fact, cotton is so common in West Tennessee that you sometimes see leftover pieces of cotton on the side of the road, having fallen out of passing cotton trucks! The flat land in West Tennessee is wonderfully suited for big cotton farms. A cotton field in Chester County This is what a field of cotton looks like in September, right before they pick it. You can see the little white bolls of cotton. Cotton, as many of you know, is used to make clothes. Socks and underwear are made of cotton. Blue jeans and t-shirts are made of cotton. Chances are, you have worn something cotton every day of your life. A soybean field in White County There are soybean fields all over Tennessee, especially the flatter sections of the state.  A lot of things you eat (such as french fries and potato chips) are fried with vegetable oil, and a lot of that oil comes from soybeans. Some people prefer soy milk, made from soybeans, to the milk that is produced by cows. Soybeans can even be used to make crayons and candles. By the way, many of the uses for soybeans have only recently been discovered, which is why the amount of soybeans being produced in Tennessee has gone up over the years. In fact, in West Tennessee there is now more land growing soybeans than there is land growing cotton. This is new; it used to be that cotton was the number one crop in West Tennessee. A cornfield in Maury County We all know what you do with corn, right? You EAT IT -- not only as corn on the cob and canned corn, but corn is used to make cereal, cornbread, popcorn, animal feed... lots of things. You'll find corn fields all over Tennessee, though farmers are more likely to grow corn in Middle and East Tennessee than in West Tennessee. One thing about corn: it needs a lot of rain, and if it gets too hot, corn doesn't grow well. Tobacco grows in Cumberland County Some adults smoke or chew tobacco (in spite of the fact that it is very bad for their health). The climate and terrain in East Tennessee, and the northern parts of Middle Tennessee, are well-suited to tobacco. Because of this, tobacco remains one of Tennessee's main crops. For more information:     * The Tennessee Department of Agriculture has a lot of information for students on its web page. Click here to be taken to it. * The Tennessee Farm Bureau has a program called "Ag in the Classroom" that provides workshops and lesson plans that help teachers use agriculture to learn other subjects like math, science and social studies. Click here to learn more about it. * And of course there is the Tennessee 4-H, which has a myriad of programs and activities in and out of the classroom that teach kids about agriculture. Here is their website. As we know, old MacDonald had more than just crops on his farm: he had animals as well. In the next section (click here) we'll talk about some of them.