<66 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Sept., 



One way to begin the organization of the rural neighbor- 

 hood is to study the methods of organizing the urban units. 

 These urban units are too large, but nevertheless they have 

 done some good work. I refer to the chambers of commerce 

 and the boards of trade which try as best they can to or- 

 -ganize the business interests of the city for the purpose of 

 .general city improvement. This form of organization might 

 very w^ell be adopted in the rural neighborhood. This wiil 

 prove a school for the development of rural statesmanship, 

 or neighborhood statesmanship. It will furnish an oppor- 

 tunity for the fnan with constructive ideas to get those ideas 

 put into practice. Some of the cities are also trying the ex- 

 periment of the city manager, though, as a matter of fact, 

 that is what the mayor ought to be, or else the town clerk. 

 In fact, in those countries where they have good city govern- 

 ment, either the mayor or the town clerk is the city manager. 

 A'ery few rural neighborhoods have any similar functionary 

 -whose business it is to promote the development of the 

 "neighborhood. 



It would be useless to have either a neighborhood manager 

 or a rural chamber of commerce without giving it something 

 to do immediately. It must be kept busy from the very 

 :start with the solution of neighborhood problems. Some cf 

 these problems are already acute and calling for immediate 

 solution. There is, for example, the great problem of buying 

 :and selling, the problem of finding an outlet for the products 

 of the neighborhood and the most economical method or 

 supplying itself with the products of other neighborhoods 

 which it must bring in. I wonder if we realize how all-im- 

 portant this great problem of buying and selling has become. 

 In the old days of self-sufficing agriculture, when practically 

 •every farm produced everything that was consumed on the 

 farm, and consumed everything that was produced on the 

 farm, this was a question of minor importance ; but we have 

 long passed out of that stage. The farmer is a buyer and 

 seller in almost the same sense as the manufacturer, and, as 

 a matter of fact, farming is the only large business in the 

 -country which Ijuys even its raw materials at retail and sells 

 its finished products at wholesale. This in itself is a sufh- 



