RURAL ECOXOMICS 1343 



All these modifications in the direction of production prove that the 

 quantity of meat available per inhabitant is diminishing, and that unfor- 

 tunateh' the classes who must renounce a large meat consumption are those 

 engaged in manual labour, that is. the x'er}' classes who most feel the need 

 for meat food. All this finally proves that the United States are also 

 experiencing the first symptoms of the state of things always observeable 

 in denseh- populated countries. Though it is likely that in the future 

 the United States will be able to feed the numerous population which is to 

 be anticipated, it is certain on the other hand that the future popullation 

 will not be al)le to live so well as does the present. 



The writer sees in the localisation of manufacturing industr}- in rural 

 districts the possibility' of considerably reducing the cost of living, while 

 allowing the workman's family to have a garden or even a small farm which 

 can furnish vegetables and poultry, together with a sufficient quantity of 

 forage to keep a dair^- cow. He nevertheless criticises the opinion maintain- 

 ed by many persons that in order to reduce the cost of agricultural products 

 it would be necessary to break up farms and reduce their size, because no- 

 thing but disadvantage to consumers can result from the fact that a 

 greater portion of the products is consumed by a larger number of produ- 

 cers and labour animal < employed per unit of area. 



In the general farming region, from the vState of New York to Nebra- 

 ska, the tendency in reality is to pass from a farm with two pairs of horses 

 i. c. from So to loo acres to one with three pairs, i. e. from 120 to 150 acres, 

 owing to the fact that by working smaller areas the horses which are indis- 

 pensable to haul modern labour-saving machiner\- are not completely uti- 

 lised, and consume an excessive proportion of the gross product. 



Farms specialising in market-gardening and fruit production may be 

 smaller, but to meet the demand for these products a very small number of 

 farms is required as compared with those needed to meet the demand for 

 cereals, forage, potatoes, livestock and derived products ; for this class of pro- 

 duction the medium sized farm, as will be seen, .supplies the consumer with 

 a quantity of products per unit of surface greater than that furnished by 

 the farm of smaller area. China, the classical country of the very small 

 farmer, realh' exhibits a picture of an agricultural population which, in 

 spite of the assiduous labour of men, women and children, scarcely succeeds 

 in producing a little more than what it consumes to live, and which is only 

 able to maintain a small percentage of consumers in towns. The low price 

 of labour is the index to the poverty of this population. As long as the high 

 price of labour continues in the United States, so long will the use of ma- 

 chinery and farm horses be required for growing the principal agricultural 

 products, and this will entail such size of farm as may be adapted to the 

 best utilisation of such machines and horses. 



The Author strongly recommends the restriction of immigration by 

 increased severity in the regulations for the admission of emigrants, as 

 forming one of the best means to prevent the cost of living continuing to 

 rise more and more, and putting a stop to the present tendency to lower 

 the standard of living now obtaining. 



