MENTAL AND MORAL ASPECTS 167 



sistance is a result of generations of experience and adjustment. 



Another significant characteristic of the agricultural industry 

 is that it is still, and shows no sign of ceasing to be, an industry 

 of small units. A small unit in the agricultural industry means 

 merely a small number of persons employed on each unit and 

 not a small acreage. This characteristic of agriculture is of great 

 importance because it signifies that a very large proportion of 

 those engaged in it are self-employed and only a small propor- 

 tion, as compared with other industries, are employed. This fact 

 of self-employment means, among other things, self direction, 

 initiative, independence, and responsibility for the success of the 

 business. This requires qualities never demanded of the wage 

 earning or salaried employee. 



The demand for these qualities is still further heightened by 

 another significant characteristic of the agricultural industry, 

 viz, its seasonal character. The farmer's work not only changes 

 from season to season, but from day to day, and even from hour 

 to hour. Besides there are multitudinous, unexpected and un- 

 foreseeable changes made necessary by the instability of the 

 natural forces with which he has to contend, such as changes of 

 the weather, etc. All this means that the farmer must reorganize 

 the work of the farm frequently, sometimes at an hour's notice. 

 He never knows what it is to carry on a single operation the year 

 round as is often possible in the mechanical trades. He must 

 always be on the alert and ready to decide what is to be done 

 next. They to whom this everlasting deciding what to do next 

 is a painful process must leave the farm and go where that 

 question is decided for them by a boss or manager. 



Again it is a fact which educators still have to lament that no 

 substitute has yet been found for the schooling which the boy 

 gets on the farm as a matter of course. Here is where the boy 

 on the farm has a priceless advantage over his city cousin. He 

 can watch his father at work, and, as soon as he is old enough, 

 may help. There is no schooling equal to this ; but it is seldom 

 open to the city boy in these days. 



The intimate association of parents and children in the work of 

 the farm and the farm household gives a common interest to the 

 rural family which is not always maintained under urban con- 

 ditions. The rural family is a stable institution as compared 



