74 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



has made every farmer of the civilized world the competitor of every 

 other farmer in the sale of products consumed at his own door, and 

 he who can produce cheapest will survive. The farmer, therefore, 

 must have the best machinery and make it available over the largest 

 possible area, and this, again, restricts the small farmer at least to the 

 production of the specialty best adapted to his location. There is 

 another reason for this: formerly, when his surplus product was con- 

 sumed near by, he could know the capacity of his market and the 

 competition to be expected; now, when his surplus is often consumed 

 many thousands of miles away and sold at the price fixed by the 

 competition of the world, it is very difficult for any farmer to inform 

 himself of the probable profit of production of many articles. And 

 yet this knowledge, while far more difficult than formerly for the 

 farmer to obtain, is far more essential, because, while formerly the 

 farmer was interested in the money value of but a small portion of 

 his product, he is now interested in the money value of nearly all of it. 



Still other elements now have to be considered by the farmer. 

 The increased use of money involves borrowing and debt. With 

 proper business knowledge, borrowing is legitimate and profitable to 

 the borrower; nearly all business men are large borrowers; but bor- 

 rowing in excess of the knowledge to use wisely involves risk, paid for 

 by high interest, and often leads to disaster. The farmer, unaware 

 of his ignorance, has become greatly indebted, and is now profoundly 

 interested in a stable currency. From being a very small buyer he 

 has become a very large one, and is vitally interested in the control 

 of trusts and other combinations affecting the price of the necessities 

 of life. As all that he sells and all that he buys are necessarily trans- 

 ported over the great routes of commerce, he has come to have a 

 money interest in the conduct and control of transportation com- 

 panies. Paying more taxes than he did, the farmer is more interested 

 in the maintenance of a just system of taxation and the economical 

 conduct of all public affairs. All these and kindred subjects form 

 part of the great science of economics, as to which it is highly necessary 

 that the farmer be well informed in order, in the conduct of his busi- 

 ness and by his vote when necessary, intelligently to protect his own 

 interests. 



It appears, then, that from being a producer and manufacturer 

 on a small scale for the home market he has become a producer and 

 merchant on a large scale for the markets of the world. While once 

 little knowledge would serve him, and that mostly such as his own 



