Modern Marvels The Tennessee Valley Authority

TVA offered special assistance to 23,000 people who signed up to be "test demonstration" farmers. The best specialists in the country turned these farms into living laboratories.

First, farmers learned to plow along the natural curves of the land. Contour plowing prevents rain from racing downhill and causing a flood. Next, farmers learned to use phosphate fertilizer, which restored productivity to the tired soil. Then a broad mixture of crops was introduced, including clover, tobacco and wheat. Community threshers improved the efficiency of the harvest.

The plan worked. The demonstration farmers dramatically increased their harvests. Even though half the valley's farmland had been flooded by reservoirs, the total farm output increased by nearly 100 percent.

TVA had dramatically improved life in the valley. But the biggest improvement was yet to come. Electric power would change things in ways no one could anticipate. And it would create a power struggle that would tear TVA apart.