124 FLIGHT FROM THE CITY 



problem of employment is because the evil effects of 

 a decline in the price of the crop he produces do not 

 put him on charity as quickly as the evil effects of 

 a decline in the sales of the products of some industry. 

 With declines in sales of manufactured products, in- 

 dustrial workers are promptly laid off or fired, but 

 with declines in agricultural prices, unemployment 

 only appears after foreclosure of farms for non-pay- 

 ment of interest and taxes leaves farmers without 

 farms on which to work. It is true, of course, that the 

 evil effects of dependence upon the general condi- 

 tion of business are smaller in degree in the case of 

 farmers, even for those who specialize in cash crops 

 such as wheat and cotton and hogs, because most 

 farmers tend to produce some of their own necessities 

 of life. If they own their own farms, they at least pro- 

 vide their own shelter instead of renting it. If they 

 have a vegetable-garden and orchard, or a cow and 

 some chickens, they at least produce some of their 

 own foodstuffs. Even though they are in the long run 

 affected disastrously by their dependence upon the 

 growing of crops sold in the produce markets at prices 

 fixed by the total supply and demand for what they 

 produce, this limited degree of production for use 

 gives to farmers in general a position somewhat more 

 secure than that of industrial workers. But that is all. 

 The more dependent the farmer is upon his cash crop, 

 the more he is apt to suffer from the problem of em- 

 ployment. 



The essence of the matter is that when the farmer 



