2016 On just about any airplane flight during daylight hours over the USA, if one happens to be looking out the window, the vast and varied topography of the country is laid out under the clouds like a sheet of paper. Farmland is everywhere. After a flight I took from Rhinelander, Wisconsin (hence the title 'R Series') to Minneapolis, Minnesota during the summer of 2016, I was amazed how many farms had been carved out of forests, around geographic obstructions, and over incredibly varied soil types and drainages. In many places sections and quadrants of the Homestead Act of 1862 are clearly visible and neatly divided the countryside with roads, hedgerows, and fences. In others, the record of farming is modified by the asymmetrical and organic limitations of the landscape.