PART IV. 



FARM MANAGEMENT. 



CHAPTER XX. 



Production and Consumption. 



"Population must increase rapidly, more rapidly than in 

 former times, and ere long the most valuable of all arts will be 

 the art of deriving a comfortable subsistence from the smallest 

 area of soil. No community whose every member possesses this 

 art can ever be the victim of oppression in any of its forms. Such 

 a community will be alike independent of crowned kings, money 

 kings, and land kings." Abraham Lincoln. 



The wealth and power of nations springs chiefly from the 

 soil. A hundred cottage homes and gardens owned by a hundred 

 different individuals is greater evidence of national prosperity 

 and greatness than a hundred homes owned by a single indi- 

 vidual, when in those homes there are housed the families of a 

 hundred miserable, subservient, cringing tools of landlordism and 

 monopoly. 



The high cost of living cannot be wholly charged to under- 

 production by the farmer. It is a problem that must be solved 

 partly by the consumer. The price received by the farmer is 

 one thing, while the price paid by the consumer under the usual 

 method of distribution is quite a different thing. 



There may be overproduction of some farm crops in a certain 

 locality, while in another locality there may be underconsumption 

 of the same product. For instance in 1909 potatoes were sold 

 in certain parts of the country for from 10 to 20 cts. per bushel, 

 yet at the same time consumers in the East were paying 50 to 75 

 cents per bushel. 



One of the most successful solutions that has been proposed 

 outside of legislative action has been the organization of co- 

 operative societies. Cooperative selling and cooperative buying 

 associations will go far toward relieving conditions, effecting in- 

 equality in distribution and prices. 



The problem of cooperative distribution is so simple that it 



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