1 8 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



which he had not planned to do at all. The work of the farmer, 

 more than that of any other class, calls for versatility and 

 resourcefulness. He must always be ready to decide what is to 

 be done next, when these numerous interruptions occur. The 

 worker in a factory, on the other hand, has fewer interruptions 

 of this kind. He learns one particular kind of work and may 

 keep at it for months, and even years, without any abrupt change. 

 This requires neither versatility nor resourcefulness, but merely 

 patience and dexterity. 



Domestic character of agriculture. Again, the work of the 

 farmer is carried on in direct connection with the home and 

 the family. In this particular it differs widely from all the other 

 large industries, such as mining, manufacturing, etc. There are 

 still a few small shops and stores where the business and the 

 home are united, and the work of the household is not sharply 

 separated from the " business " of getting a living ; but these 

 are survivals of an older system and are not now charac- 

 teristic of these industries as a whole. But it is quite the com- 

 mon thing, especially in this country, for the farmer to live on 

 the farm, and for different members of the family to participate 

 more or less in the common work of the farm or of supporting 

 the home and the family. There is, therefore, no such sharp 

 distinction between "business " and the home, or between " busi- 

 ness " ideals and the ideals of private life in the country as there 

 is in the city. When, however, the farmer turns trader, he fre- 

 quently imitates the practices which urban traders too generally 

 follow, and departs from the ideals of private life. In such cases 

 he is very much inclined to justify himself with the remark, 

 " That's business." Those who make this remark virtually ad- 

 mit that the standards of business are different from those of 

 ordinary life. 



Farmers generally self-employed. Mention has already been 

 made of the so-called independence of the farming class. There 



