244 



PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



economically than the small producer ; but this is of no advan- 

 tage to the grower of a staple crop, which must be sold at the 

 regular market price, in which case advertising is of little use. 



The disadvantages of large-scale farming. The disadvan- 

 tages or difficulties of large-scale farming may 'be 'grouped into 

 three classes, namely, geometrical, seasonal, and temperamental. 

 The geometrical difficulties are due to the fact that farming 

 necessarily requires considerable space or superficial area. Even 

 intensive farming, gardening, etc., where large-scale farming 

 shows most signs of persisting, need more space than most 

 other industries. Large-scale farming, therefore, necessitates 

 large spaces or large areas of land. This means a loss of time 

 and energy in traveling from one part of the farm to another, 

 transporting tools and machinery, seed and crops, to and from 

 different parts, and especially in going to and from work. More 

 than that, it generally increases the difficulty of supervision and 

 direction. The manager cannot get quickly from one part of the 

 farm to another, as is possible in a store or factory, and conse- 

 quently only a small part of a large farm can be under his 

 supervision at any one time. This necessarily limits very mate- 

 rially the possibility of economizing the only important kind 

 of skill which large-scale farming is capable of economizing, 

 namely, managing skill. 



This possibility is still further limited by the seasonal difficul- 

 ties. In a factory there are certain operations which have to be 

 performed continuously the year round. An employee may be 

 set at one of these operations and he requires no further atten- 

 tion beyond the necessary inspection and accounting, to see that 

 he puts in his full time and does his assigned task in a satis- 

 factory manner. Accordingly one human intellect is capable of 

 managing a large-scale aggregation of such men by the aid of 

 modern business systems, checking devices, etc. When the 

 working force is once organized and put in operation, the work 



