SOME CONCLUSIVE COMPARISONS l8l 



from year to year without appreciable increase in 

 expense. We are now eating all we can hold; the 

 only way to utilize increased production will be in 

 increased sales. Up to a certain point, that is to say 

 for several years to come, net cost of living will 

 therefore continue to decline, whether the general 

 cost of living goes up or down. 



Now compare a neighboring farm which is 

 used only as a suburban home. The family is the 

 same size as mine. The farm is less than a third 

 the area of mine, yet there is room on it to do 

 nearly everything we do here. No attempt is made 

 to produce anything from it but a summer vege- 

 table garden. I have said the difference between 

 merely keeping property from going to rack and 

 ruin, and putting it to productive use, is insignifi- 

 cant. This case history exemplifies the contention 

 beautifully, for there is a weekly labor bill as big 

 as mine excepting heavy, contract labor and an 

 annual overhead expense insurance, repairs, and 

 so forth usually as big, sometimes bigger than, 

 mine. For lack of farm manure that part of the 

 land in use has run down, so there is actually a 

 depletion charge (which I do not have) which will 

 only show up when and if the farm is sold. The 

 combined cost for food and the farm in this case is 

 more than forty dollars a week: more than double 

 the net cost of living at Medlock Farm. 



Now observe. If and when the general cost of 



