THE ORGANIZATION OF RURAL INTERESTS 507 



and fair at one time may not be right and fair at another time 

 because of changing conditions. So let us consider for a moment 

 some of these adjustments that the farmers must recognize. 



ADJUSTMENTS AMONG THE FARMERS THEMSELVES 



We must secure a sort of balance between the interests of 

 the individual and the interests of the farmers as a whole. This, 

 of course, is a need everywhere in the world. It is not by any 

 means true that if each individual is left to follow his own 

 interests the interests of all will be gained. This is simply the 

 "law of the jungle"; the strong win, the interests of the weak 

 are over-ridden. Perhaps the greatest obstacle to agricultural 

 business cooperation in America is the fact that the most pros- 

 perous and efficient farmers in the community do not see the 

 need of pooling their interests; they are not willing to sacrifice 

 a little for the sake of those who would be greatly helped by 

 common action. 



Balance bctivecn Sub -Industries. When a new opportunity 

 in agriculture shows itself, it may become so popular as to crowd 

 out other forms of production which are fully as essential. 

 Fruit growing in the irrigated districts of the West not only 

 encroached upon fruit growing in the East, but hindered the 

 development of dairy and stock farming to which the irrigated 

 areas are peculiarly adapted. 



Balance between Sectional Interests. One of the most serious 

 of all rural questions is the competition of regions. The apple 

 growers of New England with those of the Pacific Northwest ; 

 the vegetable growers of Florida with those of Massachusetts; 

 the sugar beet growers and the sugar cane growers ; the farmers 

 who grow cattle feed in the Middle West and the dairymen 

 of the East who have to buy these feeds. We find here constant 

 need of establishing fair relationships. 



Regional Self -Support. It is a law of economics that the 

 greatest efficiency in production comes when each region pro- 

 duces that which it can best grow, not necessarily that which it 

 can grow better than some other region. Each acre of land 

 should be put to the best use for which it is fitted, considering 

 soil, climate, labor, and market. Therefore it is neither prac- 

 ticable nor desirable that each country, or each state, or cadi 



