MANAGEMENT 249 



Therefore the number of farm workers who remain permanently 

 in :he class of hired laborers is relatively small. Forty years ago 

 one month's wages of a farm hand would buy as much as one 

 acre of land almost anywhere in the state of Iowa, and in some 

 places they would buy two, three, and even four acres. To-day, 

 though wages have risen, land has risen still more, so that it 

 will take at least two months' wages anywhere, and generally 

 three, four, five, and even six months' wages, to buy an acre in 

 thai; state. Under these circumstances it is not difficult to 

 understand why fewer and fewer men own the land on which 

 they work. 



15ut let the tendency be carried still further ; that is, let there 

 be dear land and cheap labor, and a different result will follow. 

 Labor being cheap, or wages low, it will be difficult for the farm 

 hand to buy land. A larger number will fail to make the tran- 

 sition from the position of laborer to that of landowning farmer, 

 and there will be a larger class permanently in the position of 

 hired laborers. This separation of classes will foist upon the 

 country some of the same social problems which are such a pres- 

 ent disgrace to our cities. The way to prevent this is to see to 

 it that our agricultural population maintains a high standard of 

 intelligence, of efficiency, of independence, and of power of ini- 

 tiative ; or, in other words, that as many as possible of them 

 shall possess sufficient managing ability to fit them to become 

 independent farmers, and that every effort to fill up our rural 

 districts with any other class of people be defeated. 



Disadvantages of small-scale farming. Before discussing the 

 merits and demerits of small-scale farming let us distinguish a 

 little more sharply than we have done as yet between medium- 

 scale and small-scale farming. A single acre of land, or even 

 less, when devoted to some highly specialized product, such as 

 violets or winter vegetables, may be medium-scale rather than 

 small-scale farming. Such a tract of land devoted to such a 



