THE RURAL PROBLEM 53 



adjust the number of producers to the number of con- 

 sumers. Our land policy had developed too many pro- 

 ducers. The application of scientific principles to pro- 

 duction and the establishment of a nation-wide system 

 of transportation enabled relatively fewer men to grow 

 the food of the nation. But of course this may be car- 

 ried too far. If we have too many producers, we get 

 cheap food and also cheap men on the farm. If we 

 have too few producers, the country is not adequately 

 supplied with food. 



Adjustment in the Factors of Production. The 

 problem is essentially this : How may the farmer com- 

 pete with manufacturing and business interests for land, 

 labor and capital? It is a question of proper relation- 

 ships. The farmer must have his share of these or he 

 cannot do his best work. He has to compete con- 

 stantly with these other industries. How can we make 

 sure that he has a fair field? 



Yield per Acre and Yield 'per Man. The strength 

 of European agriculture lies in its large yield per acre 

 of land. The strength of American agriculture lies in 

 its large yield per man who works the soil. It is in the 

 interests of consumers to have the maximum yield of 

 food per acre; it is in the interests of producers to have 

 the maximum return due each individual worker. But 

 clearly, both of these things cannot happen at the same 

 time. Somewhere we must find the fair balance. We 

 must adjust the interests of both. How can we do it? 



The Conservation of Soil Resources. Less than for- 

 merly do the farmers want to use their land even if they 

 use it all up. It is a truism that the American farmer 

 has skimmed the cream off the soil and then gone on 

 west. Society, that is all of us together, which really 

 owns the land> is interested to have it become more pro- 



