Association. His son is now in the Army in France. 

 The farm family is, therefore, taken out of its former 

 isolation and made keenly conscious that even what 

 happens on the other side of the Atlantic directly 

 affects it. 



The farm family is now more clearly conscious 

 that its prosperity depends directly on forces which 

 it, acting alone, cannot control. It is the general 

 experience of county agents and all who have to do 

 with farming that the farmer was never before so 

 conscious of the great national forces which now so 

 largely determine his success or failure. 



The war also profoundly affected established 

 habits. To illustrate, in the words of a farm imple- 

 ment and tractor distributor in a great middle western 

 city: "Three years ago before the war opened three 

 farmers out of four were skeptical about the tractor. 

 Now three out of four are thoroughly convinced that 

 the tractor is the coming thing on the farm. 'Why 

 the change?' The scarcity of labor has compelled 

 farmers to seriously consider the problem of motor- 

 izing the farm." That is, in ordinary times the farmer 

 would be far more likely to keep on plowing with 

 horses his accustomed method. The change to trac- 

 tor plowing would have come far more slowly.. 



The wartime prices of stock feed have .greatly 

 stimulated the movement to eliminate scrub stock. 

 More cow-testing associations are formed more 

 farmers now test the milk and eliminate the cows 

 which are "boarders." Methods of stock feeding are 

 changing. In one of the wealthiest agricultural coun- 

 ties in the East dealers report that prior to the war 

 farmers had for years bought mostly wheat bran. 

 The war and high prices stimulated them to study 

 feeds and to get expert advice. The result is that 

 other feeds are now more largely bought, because at 



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