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 bred as those in other districts, but he either has no market for them or must sell them at a greatly reduced price.

The farmer ought not to think on account of these facts that he should not change his system of farming just because his neighbors do not do likewise.

Probably the best way for a farmer to start such a movement is to arouse the interest of his neighbors in his farming operations.  As soon as this has been accomplished he can gradually bring about the change that he advocates.  Farmers in a community profit from the experiences of other individuals.

WHAT GIVES VALUE TO LAND

The value of a man’s property is dependent not upon his efforts alone, but upon what his neighbors do.  The land occupied by a pioneer increases in value as other people settle in the neighborhood, and because they settle there.  Men often buy land and then simply wait for it to increase in value because of improvements in the neighborhood.  The property that we own may increase or decrease in value according to the care that neighbors take of their property.  Even if we take good care of our property, it will be less valuable if the neighbors let their fences and buildings run down and the weeds grow than it will be if they keep their fences and buildings in good repair and their weeds cut.

INTERDEPENDENCE IN HEALTH

Malaria is carried by mosquitoes, and we know that mosquitoes breed in standing water, as in swamps and in old barrels or tin cans that hold rainwater until it becomes stagnant.  Now we may endeavor to get rid of mosquitoes, and thus of malaria, by removing all open receptacles of water about our premises and by draining the marshes on our land; but unless our neighbors do the same, we are not much better off than we were before.