ORGANIZATION OF THE AGRICULTURAL ENTERPRISE 363 



are tilling such large areas that the work cannot be other than super- 

 ficially done. 



In the old days, the neighborhood group was very often entirely 

 self-sufficient. It was the natural thing for the farmer who had more 

 sons than could profitably be employed upon the home acres to allow 

 one or more of the boys to spend a portion of the year in the employ of 

 neighbors who were without sons. Though it was an economic mis- 

 fortune to be without strong and willing boys in the home, yet one 

 could usually depend upon hiring neighbor boys for just the length 

 of time that help was needed. 



The multiplication of radiating influences from the rapidly 

 developing modern city has swept away the old days. The growing 

 sons and daughters are spending more and more time in the schools. 

 The well-to-do farmer very naturally wishes his children to enjoy as 

 good educational advantages as the children of the town merchant. 

 His own children gone, he calls in vain now for the assistance of the 

 young people of the neighborhood. They, too, are at school, or, if 

 at work, are in the shops and stores of the city. The old group is 

 broken, and help, if it comes, must come from without. Efficient 

 single men and women for farm labor may seldom be found today at 

 any wage, and the supply of inefficient laborers is becoming con- 

 tinually less. 



There seems to be no lack of capable married men who are glad 

 to work on the farms for pay equivalent to their city wage. They 

 must be made certain, however, of work for the entire year, and their 

 pay must include the rent of suitable dwelling houses. The farmer 

 of today, as a rule, is not in a position to take advantage of this source 

 of labor supply. Hence, his fields are imperfectly tilled and his 

 crops improperly harvested. 



The merchant has no difficulty in obtaining workers. For him, 

 the "Help Wanted" sign brings scores of applicants. The manufac- 

 turer often has a " waiting list " to choose from. That these men ma> 

 hire while the farmer may not is a social discrimination against the 

 occupation of farming that cannot long be withstood. 



Undoubtedly the primary fault in the occupation, the one funda- 

 mental thing which is rendering the present system of farming the 

 least popular calling in the modern scheme of things, is its lack of 

 opportunity for specialization in labor. In these days of the expert, 

 the farmer is inexpert and therefore lonesome. In the cities, the men 

 of every calling, from the surgeon to the chimney-sweep, pride 



