AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 711 



and are important factors in swelling the sum total of urban 

 wealth. On the other hand, the business of the agriculturist is 

 not capable of monopoly control. The great number and the iso- 

 lation of agricultural producers render practically impossible pools 

 designed to control the output of food products. Moreover, agri- 

 culture is so largely dependent upon cosmic forces, over which 

 man exercises little or no control, that even were a combination 

 of agriculturists successfully organized, it would be impossible for 

 it to regulate the volume of food products and thereby control 

 prices. Such considerations throw still further light upon the 

 more rapid accumulation of urban than of rural wealth. 



7. The fact that special knowledge or skill is not indispen- 

 sable in the performance of many operations upon the farm is 

 also deserving of attention. It is not intended to say that the 

 labors of the skilled, intelligent, and energetic agriculturist are 

 not more largely rewarded than those of the unskilled, ignorant, 

 and slovenly cultivator ; but that there are few occupations where 

 mediocre ability and lack of thrift can manage to eke out an 

 existence with as much certainty as upon the farm. A lack of 

 ordinary enterprise and energy is in many other pursuits much 

 sooner overtaken with disaster. In explanation of this it may be 

 said that agriculture is often dependent quite as much upon fa- 

 vorable climatic conditions as upon the human element, while in 

 some other lines of industrial activity the personal qualities of 

 the worker are to a much greater degree determinant of success. 

 Consequently, many inefficient and thriftless cultivators who 

 could scarcely earn a livelihood at anything else are not speedily 

 weeded out of the business, but continue to contribute to the 

 abundance of the world's food supply. Partly owing to the com- 

 petition of this class of farmers, and to the dependence of agri- 

 culture upon conditions which man is powerless to control, the 

 better-directed labors of men possessing more than average skill 

 and intelligence are less amply rewarded than those of men of the 

 same ability in other walks of life. On the other hand, the occu- 

 pations of city life afford industrial opportunity for the exercise 

 of that administrative ability and technical skill which in modern 

 society is most amply rewarded. The highly paid executive talent 



