100 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 



it is for the American farmers to develop an 

 oppressive monopoly. A farm is a going con- 

 cern that must keep going. It takes years to de- 

 velop herds of live stock and to get a farm 

 into operation. The farmer cannot shut down 

 and immediately stop his cost of operation. 

 Farms are so widely distributed and so diversi- 

 fied that the moment the price of a single farm 

 product makes that product the most profitable, 

 millions of other farmers will begin to grow the 

 product and the increase in production brings 

 down the excessive price. A witness before 

 the Commission of Agricultural Inquiry pointed 

 out that even if all of the present wheat growers 

 of the country combined and attempted to boost 

 prices the three or four million other farms in 

 the country that could and would produce wheat 

 to some extent would be tempted to go into the 

 business and thereby check the rise in price due 

 to the combination of the first growers. Only 

 the possibility of organizing ^ve or six million 

 farmers of every class and kind w^ould offer 

 the danger of a monopoly. 



But the most fundamental check of all against 

 a monopoly in agriculture is the fact that no 

 producer can determine beforehand at planting 

 time what his crop will be at harvest. He can 



