AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



power of society to the best advantage. The man 

 who is toiling in the field as well as managing 

 the farm is less likely to be far-sighted at a time 

 when he is tired, and at such times he may sacrifice 

 much of the profits for a relatively small saving of 

 labor. 



On the other hand what improves the efficiency 

 of the management in this way may lower the 

 quality of the workmanship. There are some 

 men, it is true, who seem to work better for others 

 than for themselves, but with many others, the 

 opposite is true. There are vast numbers of small 

 farmers who do not use good methods, who, be- 

 cause of their interest in that which is their own, 

 will put forth greater effort than they would if 

 they were working for some one else. 



It has been said that certain kinds of farming 

 lend themselves more readily than others to large 

 scale operations; that wheat farming, for exam- 

 ple, is especially suited to large scale operations, 

 but that as this one crop system gives way to di- 

 versified farming, the advantages of smaller farms 

 assert themselves. The owner of young stock 

 takes more pains with them than he would if he 

 were a hired laborer. It is certainly true as a 

 general rule that the man who owns the lambs or 

 pigs will lose more sleep and go to more trouble 

 than will a hired man. "He that is an hireling, 

 and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are 

 not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, 



124 



