1QO WE FARM FOR A HOBBY 



what we know they must have to start home-use 

 farming. At today's prices it is about five hundred 

 dollars' worth of livestock, nursery stock, and man- 

 ufactured equipment. A two-and-one-quarter-bil- 

 lion-dollar order awaits the industries involved, 

 any time they are smart enough (and it would not 

 be much of a trick; at least one of the railways 

 did very much the same thing, years ago) to or- 

 ganize the part-time farming movement and get it 

 going. Two and one-quarter billions is enough to 

 make even a politician perk up his ears, let alone 

 a capital goods industry. 



The social and hygienic implications of such a 

 movement are too intricate to assess or forecast. 

 That they would be profound is as certain as that 

 the political result of moving three and one-half 

 million votes out of large cities where they count 

 for little into thinly populated counties where 

 they count for much would be practically revolu- 

 tionary. It would be a further step in the disin- 

 tegration of the city, and to that extent would be 

 all to the good. For the city as a sociological insti- 

 tution has already become in our time though we 

 still do not suspect it almost obsolete. 



But soft! Night thickens. Good things of day 

 begin to droop and drowse. Come to look at the 

 clock, they have been drooping and drowsing quite 

 a while: it is after two. The chickens should have 

 been fed six hours ago. They will enjoy it none 



