ORGANIZATION 135 



county farm bureau has probably fixed for all time the 

 county unit of organized endeavor. The county has 

 some advantages. There is a good deal of county 

 patriotism throughout the United States. The county 

 is the smallest effective political unit in most parts of 

 our country. The movement to organize agriculture 

 on a county basis is making rapid headway. 



6. The State. No state in America has ever devel- 

 oped a consistent and comprehensive agricultural pol- 

 icy or unified effort to get the maximum results for its 

 agriculture. Yet that is merely the business-like thing 

 to do. Each state ought to take stock of its resources in 

 agriculture, of its possibilities and its needs, laying out 

 a definite program for improvement, and then seeking 

 to bring together all the different public and voluntary 

 associations that will make the achievement of the pro- 

 gram possible. It is strange that we have not done this 

 before. There is now a strong feeling all over the 

 country that this is the statesmanlike method and that 

 it must be done if we are to get full effectiveness in our 

 agriculture. 



7. Groups of States. There are certain groups of 

 states that have many things in common. The South, 

 for example, both because of the likeness of its products 

 and its historic unity, seems a natural region for coop- 

 eration. The New England states form a natural unit. 

 The Rocky Mountain states have much more in com- 

 mon with each other than they have with any other 

 part of the country, by reason of possibilities of irriga- 

 tion and of dry farming. The so-called crop " belts " 

 such as the corn belt, the wheat belt, sugar beet belt and 

 the cotton belt, form less distinctive but nevertheless 

 important regional interests. It would be a great gain 

 to American agriculture if the whole country were di- 



