EEPOET OF THE SECEETARY OF AGRICULTUEE. 29 



exclusive reliance on one or two crops, there is a failure to utilize 

 the available labor by approximately 50 per cent. Obviously, the 

 direction of effort should be in the extension of activity over a larger 

 farm area and of diversification. 



Another vital question the farmer should ask himself is what he can 

 do with his product when he secures it. Even if farms everywhere 

 were of the requisite size for efficiency in production and reasonable 

 diversification were practiced, the difficulties would not be solved. 

 The farm unit which may be efficient for production still would have 

 acutely to consider the problem of marketing. The farmer would 

 not, through his own resources, be able to command easily the requi- 

 site transportation facilities or the daily information needed as to 

 market conditions and the best near-by market, and in most cases 

 would be at a disadvantage in bargaining with purchasers. The 

 most promising solution seems to lie in the development of commu- 

 nity cooperation or team work to determine what to produce, to 

 employ the same methods, and to secure marketing information so as 

 to enable producers to deal with buyers on an equal basis. 



There are problems, however, which, under existing conditions, 

 neither efficient individual nor community effort can solve. These 

 can be reached only by legislation. There is much that individuals 

 and groups of individuals may do in every community. In fact, 

 they must always do the larger part. Self-help will be the rule in 

 the future, as it has been in the past. Nevertheless, there are certain 

 undesirable and unjust conditions which no amount of private effort, 

 whether engaged in by farmers singly or jointly, can overcome. 

 These conditions statutory enactments alone can correct. The better 

 handling and storage of farm products, as well as trading on the 

 basis of fixed grades and standards, wait upon proper legislation. 



Among the difficulties of American farme-rs are lack of famil- 

 iarity with, and remoteness from, the actual machinery of distri- 

 bution and finance; absence of order or system in the conduct of 

 their own business transactions; inadequacy of storage facilities for 

 their products; and ignorance of what their products really are in 

 the terms of market phraseology, as well as what they are worth. 

 A producer of a manufactured article knows what it is and what it 

 costs. He knows this better than the buyer. The reverse is true in 

 agriculture. The farmer, as a rule, does not know what his product 

 is or what he is selling, while the buyer knows what he is buying. 



