794 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



Neither returns from grain at the elevator nor the trading in 

 farm products at the store continued for any great length of time 

 to meet the growing needs of the farmer. He saw the increasing 

 uncertainty of a crop income and became more and more res- 

 tive under a relation of continued dependence upon the country 

 merchant. 



Thirty years ago it would have been difficult to foretell how 

 relief was to be afforded. The farmers themselves were scarcely 

 in a position to change the system. They were, as a rule, too 

 poor to undertake any other method. From their standpoint the 

 facilities already available were the best they could afford to have. 

 Struggling almost empty-handed against the powerful forces of 

 nature, they needed every resource at their command in order to 

 succeed in the arts of production, and had but little means and 

 feeble effort available for the improvement of marketing facilities. 



The farmers were also at a disadvantage because of undevel- 

 oped facilities for transportation. A prompt and adequate railway 

 service is not afforded the sparsely settled frontier community. 

 From the standpoint of railway economy it does not pay to fur- 

 nish it. Nevertheless, it is to the interest of agencies of railway 

 and water transportation to improve the machinery of conveyance 

 for the territory they serve as rapidly as the growth of traffic 

 permits. Improvement in the quality of service is installed wher- 

 ever it results in additional business. If, however, the members 

 of a given community do not utilize the means at hand, the 

 managers of transportation are likely to withdraw the unused 

 service and thus adapt the facilities to the effective demands of 

 the people. This has been especially noticeable in smaller places 

 where the outgoing channels of transit have gradually become 

 adjusted to a backwardness of conditions in general. 



The dependence of community life upon its facilities for 

 transportation is vital in the development of marketing. Outside 

 buyers experience insuperable difficulty in securing from back- 

 ward .localities the quantity wanted of a given product at the time 

 it is wanted. Other communities further developed and with up- 

 to-date systems of transportation will attract buyers because of 

 the opportunity to secure in sufficient amounts a kind of product 



