70 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



conclusion of the argument which hokls that the future of our agri- 

 culture is to be a subdivision of the present farm units. 



I wish to call your attention to certain economic fallacies in that 

 idea. It is rather a strange fact that men who have become successful 

 through modern methods of organization, of large enterprise, and sub- 

 division of labor, should make an exception to agriculture, assuming 

 that agriculture is a vocation which can best be carried on without 

 organization and in small areas. It is just as logical for us to under- 

 take to say that it is more profitable to make shoes as they were made 

 by the old cobbler of fifty years ago, and that we shovild subdivide the 

 modern shoe factory that turns out its 500 or 1,000 pairs of shoes a day, 

 as it is to say that the large farms should be reduced to the smallest 

 possible area. There are certain dangers in this idea. It is a very 

 attractive idea, especially to the man who hasn't the means to buy a 

 large farm. It is surely a very alluring proposition to the man on a 

 salary to think that he could, with his small capital, buy a small farm 

 of ten or twenty acres and become independent. A few years ago, a 

 man wrote a book on the subject "Ten Acres Enough," and he induced 

 many city people w'ho did not know much about agriculture to settle 

 on ten acres of land, and one of these gentlemen who settled on ten 

 acres wrote another book, the title of which was "Three Acres Too 

 Much." 



Now, were we following out the idea that is suggested what would 

 we come to? This is what Mr. Hill says we will come to. He says: 

 "It is certain that in every state, farm lands will ultimately be divided 

 and subdivided until every farmer has only as much as will allow him 

 an ample reward for his labor and enable him to support his family 

 in comfort. ' ' The idea from his point of view is to reduce every farmer 

 to a maintenance ration. Now those of you who feed cattle know what 

 that is. It is just so large a ration as will maintain an animal as he is 

 without gaining or losing ; and the ideal for the American farmer, in 

 the minds of a great many people is to subdivide the land and put 

 each farmer upon just so many acres as will provide for his bare neces- 

 sities. Now that's not very consistent with the efforts which you and 

 I are making to keep the boy on the farm', is it? If I thought that that 

 was the ultimate solution of the problem of agriculture, I should never 

 again say to my classes "Go back to the farm," and you gentlemen 

 know very well that that is not the solution of the problem, and it is 

 not possible for us to induce men of ability, men that are capable of 

 leadership, to go on the land if it means a maintenance ration. 



Now it may be argued by some, that there are two sides to this 

 question: That it may be very desirable from the farmer's point of 



