PROGRAM OF RECONSTRUCTION 239 



ment. Failure here is much more frequent than poor 

 practice. Most unsuccessful farmers cannot manage. 

 Such questions as size of farm, amount of capital 

 needed, laying out of the farm itself, kind and conven- 

 ience of buildings, saving motions in labor operations, 

 filling in idle hours, keeping of accounts, economical 

 buying and skillful selling, wise reinvestments of profits 

 these are matters too much neglected by many farm- 

 ers. An adequate system of investigation and popular 

 education is called for. 



THE DISTRIBUTION PROBLEM 



Here we reach the real core of the farm problem on 

 its business side. Frequently a farmer finds a whole 

 season's labor gone for naught, because he must sell at 

 a price that barely meets the expenditures for mere 

 growing of the crop. He has little voice in establish- 

 ing the price. There are two fundamental difficulties 

 which the farmer faces. The price of his products is 

 determined largely by variations in the supply due 

 mainly to the weather and to fluctuations in acreage. 

 Then, again, the individual farmer sells and buys in 

 organized markets. He pits himself against combina- 

 tions of men and capital, and his struggle is futile. 

 Production is a matter of the individual farm and the 

 amount is negligible in any market. He may have 

 neither knowledge, skill nor facilities for meeting the 

 requirements of the market as to condition and form of 

 product. The small farmer cannot sort, grade, pack, 

 store or transport to advantage. It happens, there- 

 fore, that the price he gets may have no relation what- 

 ever to cost of production; often it has no relation to 

 true market values. 



It has been the habit of farmers for many years to 



