94 THE FARMER AND THE NEW DAY 



how to market them, or to similar problems. There 

 is no provision for furnishing farmers with capital 

 which they need for their requirements. 



The main objection to this plan does not consist at all 

 in details such as these, but in the fundamental diffi- 

 culty that these plans, good or bad, have not been de- 

 veloped as a part of an agricultural policy. Thus far, 

 there is no evidence that the Department of Agricul- 

 ture was consulted. Agricultural experts in the vari- 

 ous agricultural colleges have not been consulted, and 

 what is still more important, the great farmers' or- 

 ganizations have not been asked their judgment as to 

 the effect of this development upon the farmer. It is 

 simply another illustration of the fact that we do not 

 have a consistent agricultural policy nor at present the 

 machinery for developing it. We still work in groups 

 and not as a whole. 



WHO IS TO BLAME? 



This question will not be answered in this book ex- 

 cept by saying, " Nobody in particular; all of us in 

 general." These illustrations are not given to point 

 the finger of adverse criticisms at any official, govern- 

 mental agency or farmers' association, but merely to 

 try to make more real the fact of our lack of an agri- 

 cultural policy and the pressing need of our being about 

 the business of securing one. We have all been short- 

 sighted. Each man and each agency has been busy 

 in his own field, so busy as to forget the farm as a 

 whole. There has been a marvelous development of 

 agricultural knowledge and enterprise during the last 

 decade or so, and it has been difficult even for special- 

 ists to " keep up " in their own field. Agriculture is a 

 tremendously big, complex, scattered business. Ef- 



