14 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



social intercourse. It is for this reason, and for this reason only, 

 that urban people have generally found occasion to reproach 

 rural people for their lack of urbanity. 



This characteristic, however, is becoming less noticeable in 

 the case of the modern commercial farmer than it was in that of 

 the self-sufficing farmer. The self-sufficing farmer made his 

 farm produce nearly everything which he and his family con- 

 sumed. Having little to buy or sell, and few occasions for travel, 

 he had few points of contact with other men ; therefore he had 

 little to gain by social polish, and few opportunities for acquiring 

 it. The tendency is, however, toward greater and greater spe- 

 cialization in agriculture, toward a system under which each farm 

 produces only those crops for which it is best suited. Under 

 this system each farmer of course produces a great deal more of 

 these special crops than he can possibly consume. He must 

 therefore sell all or the greater part of what he produces, and 

 with the proceeds buy the other goods which he needs. This 

 calls for a great deal of buying and selling ; it brings him more 

 and more into contact with the world of men, as well as with the 

 world of material things ; and it is forcing him to become more 

 and more familiar with its movements, its manners and customs, 

 its markets, its political and commercial policies, and its scientific 

 discoveries. Therefore this old distinction between rural and 

 urban people, based upon the farmer's lack of social polish, is 

 tending to disappear, and may possibly disappear altogether 

 with the lapse of time. 



Wherein the farmer is independent and wherein he is not. 

 These considerations bring us to the question of the so-called 

 independence of the farmer. In the days of the self-sufficing 

 system of agriculture the farmers were less dependent than any 

 other class upon commercial, social, and political conditions, 

 conditions existing in the world of men. Industrial disturb- 

 ances, financial panics, commercial depressions, and all such 



