CHAPTER III 

 DEVELOPMENT OF THE FARMER'S ECONOMIC PROBLEM 



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 agriculture and manufactures. This was the ideal in 

 western Europe in the middle ages and it has not been long 

 since it was a necessity with the pioneer farmer in America. 



The beginners of American agriculture were Englishmen, and 

 the course which they first took in the New World was greatly 

 influenced by the stage of industrial progress with which they 

 were familiar at home. In the seventeenth century, the greater 

 part of the land in England was divided into small hold- 

 ings cultivated by tenants or by landowning farmers who 

 looked primarily to the production of such crops as were needed 

 in their own households. In some parts of the country, how- 

 ever, the organization of agriculture had taken on a very 

 different form. Large areas of land in the southeastern part 

 of England had been made into sheep farms on which wool was 

 produced primarily for the market. 



Thus in the seventeenth century, England had two types of 

 farmers. The peasant farmer was a hard-working, painstaking 

 tiller of the soil who was able to live " unto himself." The wool 

 and flax which were grown on his little farm were manufactured 

 by the farmer and his family into the various articles which were 

 desired for home consumption. The peasant's house was usu- 

 ally of simple construction, such as the farmer could make for 

 himself out of such materials as could be found in the immediate 

 neighborhood. Cottages made of mud and straw were very 

 common in the central and northern counties. This farmer 



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