advances in the economy of production of the large corporate
organization, compared with the individual producer.

The lone blacksmith hammering out a horseshoe nail is contrasted
with the mills of the American Steel Company. The fond dreamer looks
upon the steel trust, the oil trust, the department store, the
packing house, the chain groceries, the theatrical trust, and the
colossal enterprises that dominate every field of industry save
agriculture. Here, then, lies the neglected opportunity for the
industrial dreamer to hop over the fence, awaken the sleeping
farmer, and fill his own purse with the wealth to be made by
applying modern business methods to agriculture.

The knowing smile--the farmer may be asleep and he may not be.
Suppose that he is, does the fond dreamer dream that he is the first
man from the industrial kingdom of great things to look with hungry
eyes at the rich field of agricultural opportunity, basking in last
century's sun? Alas, fond dreamer, your name is legion. Every farmer
who has sent a son to college has known you and the Hon. William
Jennings Bryan has met you, called you an agriculturist and defined
you as a man who makes his money in town and spends it in the
country.

But the dreamer is right in his first premise--great economies in
production are the result of specialization and combination. Why not
then in agriculture? I'll tell you why. There is a touch of nature
in the living thing that calls for a closer interest on the part of
the laborer than the industrial system of the mine and factory can
give.