THE FARM LAND 93 



lation. On the other hand, an increase in national income and 

 a more equal distribution of that income would probably lead 

 to an increase in food consumption, bring a larger income to 

 the farmers, and put more farmers to work feeding the popu' 

 lation. 



An eastern newspaper once ridiculed a western farmer for 

 saying that the chief causes of agricultural troubles were the 

 automobile and the tractor. Before he made his sarcastic re' 

 marks, the eastern editor might have done well to look up the 

 actual effect of the automobile and tractor on farming. The 

 gasoline engine has displaced horses and mules which con' 

 sumed the products of 35,000,000 acres of land. Figure it out 

 for yourself. The automobile and tractor destroyed a market 

 for the crops from 35,000,000 acres. The surplus crop acreage 

 today is between 15 and 20 million acres. 



But if an invention like the automobile can destroy an agri' 

 cultural market, another invention might restore it. If, for 

 instance, corn fodder could be made into a fuel or building 

 material or rubber, there would be an industrial market for 

 these products which would absorb the surplus crop. That is 

 a future possibility. A division of the Department of Agricul' 

 ture is exploring these possibilities with the idea of turning 

 them into realities. The industrial market for farm products 

 today, however, shows no sign of taking up the slack. 



THE AMERICAN PEASANT 



When you think of our over-expanded acreage and inade' 

 quate markets, there seems to be a good chance that the surplus 

 farmers will be left living on the sub'marginal land. They will 

 either be tenants, or landowners in danger of losing their land 

 because they cannot make enough to pay their expenses. In 

 other words, there may be a large American peasantry, one of 

 the great social evils which originally drove people to America. 



Now the question is how to avoid this future peasantry. In 



