CHAPTER IV 



THE GUIDING PRINCIPLE IN THE ORGANIZA- 

 TION OF THE FARM 



There was a time when each farm family or 

 each small community tried to produce for itself 

 all the food, clothing, and shelter necessary to its 

 well-being, each family carried on both agri- 

 culture and manufactures. This was the ideal in 

 western Europe in the days of Karl the Great, 

 and it has not been long since it was the ideal of 

 the pioneer farmer in America. But with the 

 modern organization of industrial society, men 

 have found that a given amount of economic 

 activity will produce the means of satisfying a 

 greater number of wants when each man devotes 

 himself more or less exclusively to some one line 

 of production. This specialization in production 

 brings larger returns because (i) some parts of 

 the world are especially well suited for the pro- 

 duction of certain products, (2) some men are 

 especially well fitted for performing one kind of 

 work while others can best do something else, and 

 (3) any man can accomplish more when he de- 

 votes all of his time and attention to one kind of 

 work than when he changes about indefinitely 



39 



