THE COMMUNITY IDEA 149 



The farmer, like other people, is obliged to think in 

 terms of his immediate surroundings and experiences, 

 and if he finds that he is running behind the general 

 average of neighboring farmers, he realizes that there 

 is probably something wrong with him. This definite 

 community of experience aids the less efficient to be- 

 come more effective without in any vvay pulling down 

 the more efficient. It helps to bring all the farmers to 

 a higher level of effectiveness. 



Seed Selection. The individual farmer can, of 

 course, select his own seed, but is more likely to do it 

 carefully if there is a sentiment in his community which 

 demands of each farmer the selection of the best seed 

 and its careful testing. Indeed, a community of farm- 

 ers may well select one of its number who is skilled in 

 such matters to select and test seed corn for the entire 

 community. If this principle were generally applied, 

 we would soon find a great group of farm experts liv- 

 ing right on the land and serving their local communi- 

 ties in a most practical fashion. 



Use of Power. One of the greatest handicaps of 

 the average American farmer, has been the absolute 

 necessity of his making an increasing use of machinery 

 and the relatively enormous expenses of getting it. 

 Farm machinery has become indispensable and yet 

 every business farmer as well as every authority on agri- 

 cultural economics deprecates the large expenditures 

 which farmers have to make for expensive machinery, 

 most of which is idle for eleven months in the 

 year. 



The theory that farm machinery can be owned co- 

 operatively and used cooperatively often breaks down 

 in practice. There are many difficulties, but there 

 is not the slightest doubt that greater efficiency 



