238 THE FARMER AND THE NEW DAY 



cooperating with powerful associations of farmers, 

 shall study this difficulty thoroughly and seek to handle 

 it in terms of some large, nation-wide policy. 



PROBLEMS OF PRODUCTION 



The character of the problems which confront the 

 farmer in his work of producing crops and animals is 

 fairly well understood. The farmers themselves have 

 been on the whole keen to improve methods and they 

 have had far more aid from scientists in this field than 

 in any other. Preparing the soil, cultivating, fertiliz- 

 ing, adapting it to certain plants; increasing crop yields 

 and improving quality by seed selection; seeking better 

 varieties; constant improvement of farm animals by 

 breeding, feeding and attention to health; protecting 

 both crops and animals against diseases and pests we 

 are dealing with all these needs. The requirements of 

 the future are a greatly enlarged and better correlated 

 national system of research into fundamental scientific 

 principles, a wiser and more wide-spread testing of the- 

 ories in actual farm practice on a commercial scale, and 

 far better organized educational " drives " or " pro- 

 jects " for bringing not only the mind but also the will 

 of the farmers to practice the best methods. 



FARM MANAGEMENT 



Farming, even to-day and by great masses of farm- 

 ers, is thought of chiefly as growing crops and animals. 

 Only slowly have we come to realize that the good 

 farmer is actually not only a skillful handler of soil, 

 plant and animal, but that he is also a good manager. 

 Genuine business skill, executive ability, the power to 

 organize all the factors of the farm into a unity, prob- 

 ably are far more important than any other one ele- 



