FACTORS OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION 199 



hanging on their hands during a portion of the year, they could 

 thresh their wheat crops with vastly less labor and more profit 

 to themselves. One possibility would be for the more capable 

 farmer to buy out a few of his neighbors, unite their small 

 farms into one of reasonable size, and then hire the former 

 owners to work for him as farm hands. The customs and tra- 

 ditions of some countries, and even the difficulties in the way 

 of land transfer, tend to prevent this ; otherwise this result 

 wc'uld eventually come about. In some countries, for example, 

 the cost mvolved in making a transfer of land is equal to half 

 the price of the farm. Under such conditions there is a seri- 

 ous hindrance to the buying and selling of land. 



Cooperation among a number of small farmers, by means of 

 which they can work together in the operation of a machine 

 thresher, would accomplish something, though unless they could 

 employ the time profitably which they were thus enabled to save, 

 it would be doubtful economy, because the initial expense of 

 such a machine is considerable. The only real solution of the 

 problem, therefore, is for them to find productive work to do 

 during the time which they save by the use of the machine. 

 That is the only thing which will enable them to pay the cost 

 of the machine. The same or similar considerations will apply 

 also to the economy of using other machines, as compared with 

 the hand processes, on these small peasant farms. Observa- 

 tion and study among these peasant farmers have convinced 

 the writer that while the agricultural system which forces such 

 methods upon them is undoubtedly a bad one, yet the indi- 

 vidual farmer is usually eminently wise in adjusting himself to 

 the system as he finds it. The consideration of the compara- 

 tive merits of different systems of farming will be deferred to 

 a later chapter. 



Scientific knowledge. Closely associated with the use of effi- 

 cient tools and implements is the possession by the farmer 



