94 OUR USE OF THE LAND 



fact, in some areas like the cotton-growing South, the peasantry 

 is already here. Some people think that the solution is for the 

 farmer to return to the methods of the previous generation, 

 when he was not dependent on a cash crop. Then it was a 

 matter of raising everything that was needed. It is difficult to 

 see how farmers can be expected to return to such a method 

 and still maintain a standard of living much above that of a 

 peasant. After all, it is impossible to grow automobiles, elec- 

 tricity, telephones, and the thousand and one other things 

 which the people of the twentieth century have come to believe 

 justly belong to them. 



Another group of people believe that the solution lies in 

 providing productive soils for people living on sub-marginal 

 land, and then seeing that this soil remains productive. Such 

 a program depends on one thing, markets. If all the farmers 

 are put on good soil, someone must be able to buy what they 

 produce. Since there is little immediate prospect of expanding 

 the foreign market for American agricultural products, it is 

 necessary for the domestic market to absorb the products of our 

 soil. Doubtless, if everyone made enough money, all of the food 

 produced by American farmers could be consumed in this coun 

 try. However, the fact remains that everyone does not have 

 enough money. And since they cannot buy the farmers' goods, 

 the farmer cannot buy the factory workers' goods, and there is 

 the problem. 



A third group of people say, "We may as well face the fact 

 that agriculture in America is doomed. The American farmer is 

 going to cease to be an important part of American society, 

 just as the English farmer has ceased to be an important part 

 of English society. You can't have industrial and agricultural 

 development in the same country at the same time." All of 

 that may be true enough, but look at England today, fran 

 tically collecting a store of food to keep her alive in case of 

 war. And there are plenty of people living in England today 



