ORGANIZATION OF THE AGRICULTURAL ENTERPRISE 365 



the past. The little shop in which the owner and his family lived 

 and performed all the labor, both mental and physical, connected 

 with the manufacture of wagons or shoes has given way to the great 

 plant employing thousands of specialists. The small farm of today 

 is similar in its organization to the shop of yesterday, and must as 

 surely give way. 



The farmer does not leave the farm because it is in the country. 

 He turns away from it for the same reason that the cobbler turns from 

 the shop because he feels it to be out of harmony with the life about 

 him. The real "isolation," which we are to understand is the prime 

 reason for the unrest of the farmer, is not physical, it is social. It does 

 not consist in the fact that his nearest neighbor lives a quarter of a 

 mile or more away, but rather in the fact that he is a farmer: his 

 occupation and necessary mode of life do not fit well in the modern 

 scheme. If physical isolation were the cause of the discontent, 

 modern improvements in methods of communication would do much 

 to bring contentment. It is noticeable, however, that in those com- 

 munities best provided with modern conveniences the drift cityward 

 is most rapid. The more closely men are drawn together, the more 

 surely does the old order pass. 



Though the pioneer's work was well done, it is now finished. 

 There is no especial reason to look for the expert agriculturist of the 

 future among the descendants of the pioneer farmer of the past. The 

 men who are to carry on the agricultural production in the coming 

 days are being prepared in the cities for their task. As the new 

 civilization is urban, so the new farming is of necessity a specialized 

 department of urban life. There cannot long remain the distinction 

 implied in the terms "townsman" and "countryman." All men will 

 be grouped in the tables according to occupational divisions. The 

 question will be not, "Where does one live?" but rather, "What does 

 one do?" Country work will be as well subdivided as the work of 

 the cities, and for the most part according to the same divisions. The 

 agricultural expert will direct the labor in the fields as do other experts 

 the various processes in the great shops. Agricultural production will 

 have come into its own. 



One of the greatest social advantages which we may hope to 

 derive from the change is a vastly increased opportunity for laborers 

 now crowded into the cities to find work in the country fields. One 

 would expect to see a continual shifting of the laborers of the poorer 

 classes back and forth between the town and the country. The more 



