Von Thnen model Reection

Abigail Tempel AP Human Geography 8B March 14, 2013 Part1: 1. Three factors that inuence the choice of crops produced by commercial farmers are climate zone, amount of land, and the demand of the crop. The climate zone could affect it because you wouldn't be able to grow oranges in a polar climate zone because they could all die. The amount of land affects it because if you are growing a crop that takes up a lot of space like apple trees you wouldn't be able to grow a large abundance of them on a small acreage farm. The demand of the crop would affect it because if a lot of people didn't want pears then you would be left with a lot of pears that nobody wanted so if you wanted to make money than you would need to grow a crop that's in high demand. 2. Dairying farms need to be near the market place because they will spoil if they are not refrigerated so all of the products would go bad if the market wasn't within close proximity. 3. The two costs that commercial farmers are most worried about are the costs they can sell the crop for and how much it will cost to grow the crop. 4. Distance to market is so important according to Von Thnen because the products will spoil if they aren't kept in the proper environment for a long period of time. 5. The assumption that there is a single market with no connections is invalid because there are multiple places to sell your crops at. The assumptions that there is a homogeneous physical environment is invalid because today you have to cross over oceans to get crops to other countries. The assumption that transportation is equally possible in all directions is invalid because in one direction could have mountains that you couldn't get over to deliver your crops and one direction could be smooth sailing and have no obstacles to get to the market. 6. In ring one, crops like milk and cheese were made and it was in ring one because they were closest to the market so the products wouldn't spoil before they got to the market. In ring two, trees were grown for lumber and they were grown in ring two because the load would be heavy so they would need a small distance to travel to the market. In

ring 3, they grow corn and wheat because there is a lot of farming land. In ring 4, they raised cattle and pigs because they walk themselves to the market and there is a lot of room for the animals to be kept in. Part 2: With Samantha McCall 1. a) An agricultural example that does support Von Thnen's theory is the rst ring because if you have a dairy farm far away from the market than all of your product will spoil before it gets there. b) An agricultural example that does not support Von Thnen's model is if you have a goat farm up in the mountains it will be difcult to get your goats to the market so Thnen's assumption that there won't be any environmental obstacles is not true for this situation.

A($) Cotton Wheat Dairy Corn Vegeta bles 0.25 0.45 0.25 0.20 0.20

E 100 125 200 300 200

p 0.60 0.65 0.55 0.30 0.70

f 0.03 0.02 0.04 0.01 0.10

2 miles 4m 29 20 44 24 60 23 15 28 18 20

6m 17 10 12 12 -20

8m 11 5 -4 6 -60

10m 5 0 -20 -70 -100

Reection: After completing this assignment, I understand Thnen's model a lot better than when I started. This assignment really helped me to break down the model and get to know what it means. The most confusing part was part two when it asked us to compare the precipitation and environmental constraints to the rent. It also took a while to do the math for the table.