Changes in Industrial Methods 13 



contact. An excellent presentation of this phase of rural 

 activity has been made by Dr. Coulter. 1 



NEED OF BETTER BUSINESS AND BETTER FARMING 



The things most needed to bring about a better agri- 

 cultural condition, as pointed out by President Roosevelt 

 in connection with the Country Life Commission, are 

 better business methods, better farming, and better living. 

 The solutions of these questions depend on the farmer 

 himself, aided by state and federal legislation. Their 

 attainment means a further readjustment of the activities 

 of the farmer to present social and industrial conditions. 

 It means that rural methods of thought, rural education, 

 and the business of the farmer must be slowly reorganized 

 so that agriculture will not suffer unduly in its contact 

 with the organized industries. It means that the pur- 

 chase of the things used on the farm, the distribution and 

 the sale of farm crops, and the handling of rural public 

 policy questions must be organized on principles similar 

 to those that have contributed to the present high state 

 of efficiency of capital and labor. It means that the farmer 

 must give more attention to his relations to the community, 

 that farmers must work together, that their common 

 interests must be united in a force strong enough to bring 

 a healthy constructive influence into the upbuilding of a 

 better country life and sufficiently powerful to stand on 

 the same level with every interest with which it comes in 

 contact. 



It will never be possible, nor would it be desirable, to 



1 " Organization among the Farmers of the United States," J. L. Coul- 

 ter, Yale Review, 1909. 



