94 COMMISSION ON COUNTRY LIFE 



unnecessary death-rate among country children 

 and insure better health to workmen. 



So long as the labor supply is not equal to the 

 demand, the country cannot compete with the 

 town in securing labor. The country must meet 

 the essential conditions offered by the town; or 

 change the kind of farming. 



The most marked reaction to the labor diffi- 

 culty is the change in modes of farm management, 

 whereby farming is slowly adapting itself to the 

 situation. In some cases this change is in the 

 nature of more intensive and business-like meth- 

 ods whereby the farmer becomes able to secure a 

 better class of labor and to employ it more 

 continuously. More frequently, however, the 

 change is in the nature of a simplification of the 

 business and a less full and active farm life. In 

 the sod regions of the Northeast the tendency is 

 toward a simple or even a primitive nature- 

 farming, with the maximum of grazing and 

 meadow and the minimum of hand labor. In 

 many states the more difficult lands are being 

 given up and machinery-farming is extending. 

 This results in an unequal development of the 

 country as a whole, with a marked shift in the 



