DEVELOPMENT OF FARMER'S ECONOMIC PROBLEM 29 



ing system because it brings larger returns for the efforts ex- 

 pended, and our aim should be, not to revert to a less econom- 

 ical system in order to avoid the evils which have arisen, 

 but to remove the evils which accompany it and thus perfect 

 the present commercial system. 



When the farmer follows the rule of seeking the largest net 

 profits, he will not be bound to any one system, he will produce 

 for home consumption just to the extent that he can do so 

 more economically than to buy upon the market. That which 

 is good practice in this regard at one time and place may be 

 bad economy at the same time in another place, and in the same 

 place at another time. 



Producing for the market has made farm management a 

 complex problem. The farmer can no longer look within the 

 limits of his own domain and find all the information needed 

 for the guidance of his husbandry. If the farmer would succeed 

 he must give heed to the demands of millions of people, most 

 of whom he does not and cannot hope to know. He must give 

 thought also to other farmers who may be producing the same 

 article for the market. His knowledge of what other farmers 

 are doing is limited to such statistical information as can be 

 secured by public and private bureaus of information regarding 

 what has recently been produced. Fortunately, the farmer 

 finds in market prices the record of the present results of supply 

 and demand and may use prices thoughtfully studied through a 

 long period as a guide to his future actions. The physical and 

 biological environment given, the prices of the products and 

 the prices of the agencies of production — land, labor, and 

 equipments — determine what to produce and how to produce 

 it in order to secure maximum profits. 



The commercial economy, with its farm machinery, its eleva- 

 tors, its mills, its packing plants, its railway and steamship 

 lines, has made the total labor of the people much more produc- 

 tive. Every one is benefited. Where some are receiving 

 more than a fair share, a remedy must be provided through such 

 control of the marketing system as will give a fair share of the 

 proceeds to each one who helps in their production, but the 



