Community Civics and Rural Life | Page 9

THE MODERN FARMER
The farmer still does many things on the farm that in the city would be
done by special workers, such as repairing houses, barns, and tools. But
he has become vastly more dependent upon others than formerly. This
is due partly to improved farming methods, requiring the use of
complicated machines and greater technical knowledge; and partly to
improved means of transportation and communication which bring him
in close touch with trade centers. If a farmer needs a new axe handle,
he can get a better one with less expenditure of time and effort by going
to town in his automobile than if he made it himself. His farm
machinery is too complicated for him to repair except in small matters,

and even then he must go or send to town for the necessary parts, which
may be sent to him by parcel post. Not only does he get better tools and
services generally through this reliance upon others who are specialists
in their lines, but also on account of it has more time to give to the
actual business of farming, for which others depend upon him, and
leisure for thoughtful study of his problems, for social life, and for
recreation.
THE VALUE OF SELF-RELIANCE
It must be acknowledged that reliance upon others may be carried so
far as to result in loss or disadvantage. "Self-reliance" is one of the
most admirable traits of character. The pioneer farmer possessed it
from necessity to a remarkable extent. A habit of depending upon
others may quickly cause a person to lose the "knack" of doing things
for himself, to become less "handy about the place," and less "thrifty"
about keeping things in repair or installing small improvements--the
casting of a cement trough, mending the harness or the fence or
painting the barn.
WHO MAKES OUR SHOES
The interdependence of people in community life to-day may be
illustrated by starting with some of our own needs, as was suggested in
the topics on page 12. For example, if we need a pair of shoes, we must
have money, which we will suppose that we earn by farming. In order
to farm successfully we must have machinery. This we also buy in
town; but it is manufactured for us in distant city factories from metals
procured from mines and from wood from the forest. The shoes bought
at the store were also made in a factory employing hundreds of men
and women, perhaps in Massachusetts. They were made from leather
from the hides of cattle raised in the far west, or perhaps even in the
Argentine Republic. The leather is tanned by another industry, and
tanning requires the use of an acid from the bark of certain trees from
the forest. The making of the shoes also requires machinery which is
made by still other machines, the necessary metals coming from mines.
To smelt the metals and to run the factories there must be fuel from
other mines. Meanwhile the workers in all these industries must be fed

and clothed and housed. This means the work of farmers, food packers,
millers and bakers, lumbermen, carpenters, cotton and woolen mills,
clothing factories, and many others. At every stage transportation enters
in,--by team and automobile truck, by railway, by water. These are only
a part of the activities necessary in order that we may have a pair of
shoes. It would seem that practically every kind of worker and industry
in the world had something to do with it. People in communities today
are indeed very interdependent.
The following item appeared in a newspaper:
HELD BACK BY NEIGHBORS
Farmer Is Limited by Conditions in Community
The average farmer is limited in the changes he can make in his farm
business by the farm practices of the community in which he is living.
There are farmers in every community who would like to change their
systems of agriculture but are restrained from doing so by the fact that
their neighbors will not change. Many farmers have tried to change
from one type of farming to another better suited to the region, but
failed because the cost of running such an entirely independent
business was too great.
A man owning an orchard in a locality where there are no other
orchards has trouble getting rid of his crop. Even when the farmer is so
fortunate as to get buyers, he generally receives a lower price for the
same grade of fruit than would be received in a general apple-growing
region.
If a man wants to buy several purebred Holstein cows, he generally
goes to a locality where a large number of farmers keep that kind of
stock. Often there is a man in his own community who has for sale
Holsteins that are just as highly