XIV PRELUDE 



flour because they can thus get a barrel of flour for 

 five bushels of wheat, whereas by depending upon the 

 milling industry they have to "pay" eighteen bushels 

 of wheat for the same quantity of flour. 



According to the same authority, meat clubs have 

 been growing in number; a heavier canning and pre- 

 serving program is being carried out; bread-baking, 

 churning, cheese-making and other home food-pro- 

 duction activities have been revived; home sewing 

 has increased greatly, and on some farms where sheep 

 are raised, skills and equipment little used for many 

 years are being called upon to convert home-grown 

 wool into clothing and bed coverings; soap-making 

 for family use has increased; farm-produced fuel is 

 being used more freely; lumber made from the farm 

 wood -lot is being used for repairs to the house and for 

 furniture-making. The movement toward subsistence 

 farming is receiving extraordinary official recognition 

 and support. President Roosevelt flatly and frankly 

 announces as a major policy of his administration and 

 as a primary purpose of his life to put into effect a 

 back-to-the-land movement that will work. "There 

 is a necessary limit," he said early in 1930, "to the con- 

 tinuance of the migration from the country to the 

 city, and I look, in fact, for a swing of the pendulum 

 in the other direction. All things point that way. 

 . . . The great objective . . . aims at making coun- 

 try life in every way as desirable as city life an ob- 

 jective which will, from the economic side, make pos- 

 sible the earning of an adequate compensation, and on 



