Show A VOICE FROM THE COUNTRY it A agricultural er i cultural revolution dooms ya old fashioned general farm E editors note this is the first in a series of articles article s on cur renti re problems by louis bromfield one of americas leading writers bromfield Brom neld Is author of the green bay tree tho the pulitzer Pull tzer prize winning earl autumn the rains came rica pleasant sant valley and numerous other books by LOUIS BROMFIELD released by Irea features tures lately there has arisen in the mind of the writer doubts conce concerning ning two patterns of american life in which all of us have bave taken great pride in the past these are unwelcome doubts but observation and study of the patterns in relation to the highly integrated industrialized world in which wo we live make them unavoidable the are the old plo pio neer pattern of self sek dent clent general farm is doomed 2 that our present campli rated complex economic civilization cannot afford count less dinall enterprises save under very exceptional circumstances both doubts are certain to arouse protest and even abuse but both deserve the consideration of every thoughtful citizen the general farm producing a little of everything Is an american pattern growing out of lue life upon isolated frontiers and no longer fits into a highly complex national economy A few acres of corn or oats or wheat or hay cannot support a tom corn picker a combine or a hay bailer therefore the gen bromfield eral farmer Is at once at a great disadvantage advant ige in competing with the corn farmer the wheat farmer or the specialist grass farmer or the fruit farmer all ot of whom are doing efficient jobs along specialist lines with the high degree of mechanization aniza tion which any specialist enterprise ter prise can support because the general farm cannot support a high de degree iree of dechant s because the general farm cannot support a high depree degree of li onsbe general farmer mus long hours do things in an old las fashioned honed slow and inefficient way bation the general farmer must work long hours do things in an old fashioned slow and inefficient way his gross income Is almost cert certain itin to be only a traction fraction of that of the specialist speciale ciali st in dalry dairying trig gross grass farming corn and hogs fruit potatoes or any other undertaking where a man is doing one or two things efficiently and well instead of 15 things inefficiently slowly and painfully I 1 know of one specialist farm of acres raising apples rasp ber tied and hybrid seed corn which last year grossed it is highly mechanized alfalfa is grown not to feed cattle but to mulch orchards and raspberries rasp berries the labor schedule ls is balanced the year round with no peaks and no slack periods all attention is focused upon the three specialties and high pro production duc yields per acre rather than gambling upon high prices to sur the basis of all operations the income is high and the hours short because the farmer is operating in g efficiently I 1 the same acrea acreage gei operating as a general farm with a lew few chic chickens keris a few cows a few hogs a few acres ot of wheat oats corn or liay hay could have produced a maxi maximum muni gross cross income even in these times of high prices of only about or with a net of not more than the farmer would be at the mercy mercy of a custom bailer corn picker combine of hay bailer baller and would be forced to do things the hard old fashioned way and frequently suffer losses because the machinery was kasnot not available when his crops were ready gad bad weather or sudden decline in prices can rul ruin him or reduce hira him to subsist subsistence enc level I 1 suspect that in another generation the old fashioned general farm will have become a curiosity except in poor bobr agricultural are areas where a few farms cling to ib the eld ways Anyo anyone with an observant eye driving through agricultural country can see for himself the waning ot of the old pattern the well painted barns and houses the new automobiles the landscaped grounds around the farm house the good fences all of these one sees on dairy farms fruit farms or potato farms the farms that appear to be falling apart are almost always practicing agriculture in the old pioneer pattern A good many of them are closing down each year or shifting over to specialization in order to improve income and living standards or even to survive it is all part of the vast agricultural revolution now in hi progress and it is the result bof pressures from our highly integrated mechanized industrialized civilization the farm is no longer a frontier outpost in the defense against indian attack when it was necessary to produce nearly everything that was waa consumed in most productive areas of the U S today a farmer Is an integral part of our social mechanical ch anical economic structure using electricity gasoline machinery prepared feeds and other things which bind him into the whole structure so that ho he must integrate aimse himself ll 11 arid and his farm into the structure in order to survive the farmer of the future will not be a hunter trapper farmer but a businessman a scientist and a apeci specialist ci alist AU all of us will benefit by the change in terms of prices lowered through efficiency in terms of health and in terms of taxes which no longer will be needed to subsidize farms living by a pattern has become obsolete and in the past has cost us dearly in man many y ways the passing of the general farm does note not mean the passing of the family sized farm itis it is not acques a question of the amount of land but of how it is used and what the farm plan is A specialized farm of acres operated under an efficient plan produces 5 to 10 times as much income with much less labor rho farmer of the future will not be a 4 hunter bunter trapper farmer bota but a business man a scientist ht and a than the same acreage operated under the old system of egg money for the wife sentimentally the passing is sad but im afraid A is inevitable |