6 Agriculture and Its Needs 



of market conditions, sound relations with 

 railroads, in planning, and aggressiveness 

 good business methods, more than upon 

 expertness in craftsmanship. The farmer 

 is his own capitalist. In New York we 

 had 226,000 farms in 1900. They aver- 

 aged almost exactly one hundred acres to 

 the farm. Quite 200,000 of them were 

 operated wholly or in part by the owners. 

 There was little room for capital to dictate 

 Hardly any other man has the earning ca- 

 pacity of so much property dependent upon 

 his personal attributes as the farmer. The 

 mechanic's equipment is in his skill of hand 

 and in his not expensive tools if he works 

 by himself , or in a plant owned by others if 

 he works in a factory. In either case 

 he may move readily. The farmer's 

 equipment is in his farm and in his trained 

 and dependable judgment. He is very 

 much a fixture wherever he is. 



