On That Date, No. 11

“The first and most important step toward bringing agriculture into line with industry is to factory-ize the farm. This means great efficiency of production and distribution plus the control of output.

This is not to say that the American farmer is not efficient. In terms of horse-power, he has increased his efficiency from four to five times in fifty years. . . . At that, he is only half as efficient as industry, measured by the same yardstick. From this, it would seem that the American farmer must work twice as long as the American factory in order to produce the same results, and that is about what he does. . . .

Mass production . . . has wrought wonders [and] . . . it requires no stretch of the imagination to realize that as these [same] policies of factory management are invoked, the shorter day on the farm will follow.

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Sam R. McKelvie, “Can the Farm Be Factory-ized?” Nation’s Business 15, no. 4 (April 1927): 106, ff.