August, 1922 



SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 



393 



order to resist the pressure towards undue 

 price reductions. If the farmer is going to 

 get upon a satisfactory basis of operation 

 and stabilize his business, he will have to 

 associate himself with others in such an or- 

 ganization as will enable the farmers to con- 

 trol the supply of the product they produce. 

 The demand for the great commodities has 

 been fairly well stabilized and not until sup- 

 ply also becomes stabilized shall we see 

 stability of prices or anything approaching 

 it. So long as the supply is put upon the 

 market in driblets and at uncertain intervals 

 — that is, so long as the supply is not 

 regulated — there will be all kinds of op- 

 portunity for depressing the farmers' pricps 

 and keeping his return from his business 

 much below that in other lines. 



III. — Conditions of Stability or 



Permanence of the Ag-ricultural 



Population 



It must be understood that I am not 

 speaking here of the permanence of agri- 

 culture. That is an assured fact, for so long 

 as there are cities and towns there must be 

 agriculture in order to furnish the food sup- 

 plies of the consumers and the raw materials 

 of industry. But I am speaking of the 

 stability of the agricultural population which 

 is a no less momentous subject than the per- 

 manence of agriculture. When we contrast 

 the agricultural population of an old coun- 

 try like Great Britain with that of a new- 

 country like Canada we see that in the 

 former the rural population is fairly per- 

 manent, and the English farmer will boast 

 about the number of preceding generations 

 of his family who have been on the same 

 land which he cultivates. But in a new 

 country like our own there is an ebb and 

 flow of the agricultural population which 

 does not contribute to the building up of a 

 healthy and durable community spirit and of 

 permanently successful and helpful com- 

 munity institutions. In a locality where the 

 old settlers and their descendants have held 

 their places for a long time, there is the 

 formation of a well recognized sentiment 

 that the tone of the community must not be 

 allowed to deteriorate, and this is a potent 

 factor in keeping out undesirable elements 

 and attracting men and institutions which 

 will be helpful in sustaining and even im- 

 proving this moral and material welfare 

 Capital seeks investment in good communi- 



ties, but endeavors to avoid tliose in which 

 the plane of life is not so high or in which 

 there are disintegrating tendencies. I need 

 not trace this subject further; enough has 

 been said to show that permanence is highly 

 important in an agricultural people who 

 would establish their community upon a firm 

 basis. 



What, then, are the conditions upon which 

 this stability of population depends? 



In the first place, there • must be equal 

 social advantages in the country with those 

 in the towns or cities. We do not mean that 

 the country must have the same advantages 

 a;i the city or that the social life and institu- 

 tions of the city must be transplanted into 

 the country. It would be a sorry spectacle 

 for the people in the country to try to ape 

 the ways of those in the city. But the 

 country people should develop their own 

 social life and the means for its expression 

 in the most congenial forms appropriate to 

 the country, and to such an extent that there 

 will be an equalization of social advantages 

 in the country with those in the towns and 

 cities. 



In the second place, we cannot expect 

 stability of an agricultural population un- 

 less the educational advantages of the coun- 

 try are the equivalent of those in the urban 

 centres. There is something in family life 

 which leads to placing great emphasis upon 

 education as the means of raising the char- 

 acter of the personal life and developing 

 w-holesomeness of human relations. It may 

 be that a family may have to remain in the 

 country without these educational opportuni- 

 ties, but if an opening is afforded or can be 

 made by which they can get to the city and 

 give the young people the educational equip- 

 ment for a higher position, that family will 

 not hesitate very long before moving away 

 from tlie country. There is no doubt, but 

 that at the present" time the facilities for 

 securing an education are much greater in 

 the cities than in the country. It is pretty 

 clear that in order to hold good families in 

 the country the educational opportunities 

 available in the country must be greatly im- 

 proved. The importance of the consolidated 

 schools cannot be over-emphasized, but along 

 with the teaching of public school subjects 

 there should be provision for instruction in 

 high school subjects also. It is impossible 

 to have a democracy with part (a large part) 

 ^ comparatively illiterate and the remainder 

 M\ fairly well educated, just as it is impossible 



