150 THE FARMER AND THE NEW DAY 



could be gained if communities of farmers would 

 plan together for the most effective use of ma- 

 chinery. It is very likely true that one farm 

 tractor will do all the work for a half a dozen farms. 

 Certainly one threshing machine will do the work for 

 many farms. It is not necessary that the community as 

 a business corporation should own and control this ma- 

 chinery, although even that is not merely a dream. But 

 it can at the very least decide as a community that it 

 will economize in farm machinery, and the community, 

 as a unit, can make a contract with an individual to do 

 the threshing of the community, or with several owners 

 of tractors to do the plowing for the community. 

 These things are actually being done here and there. 

 They simply need to be organized, systematized, to get 

 the greatest efficiency. 



Power. Farmers were using power generated by 

 gasolene to an extent unbelievable a few years ago. In 

 the future, the use of electricity upon the farm will 

 prove one of the great gains that the years will bring. 

 But it is doubtful whether the farmers can get electric 

 power as cheaply or as generally as they ought to have 

 it if they treat the matter purely as an individual con- 

 cern. In some cases, power can be developed by com- 

 munities; at the least the community as a unit can make 

 far better contracts for power than any individual can 

 make. 



Labor. The labor problem in the United States, 

 serious before the war, has become acute. It will be 

 one of the farmer's greatest difficulties for many years 

 to come. The individual farmer will employ his own 

 labor and manage it. Yet the labor supply for agri- 

 culture will be more and more a matter of organization, 



