of them as they could.  Every farmhouse was a creamery and cheese factory.  As there were no sewing machines, the farmer’s wife and daughters had to ply the hand needle most of the time when they were not engaged in more laborious pursuits.  During the long evenings they generally knit socks and mittens or made rag carpets. [Footnote:  Nourse, Agricultural Economics, p 64, from “The Farmer’s Changed Conditions,” by Rodney Welsh, in the Forum, x, 689-92 (Feb., 1891).]

THE PRICE OF INDEPENDENCE

But even under such conditions as those described, the farmer and his family were not wholly independent.  Even Robinson Crusoe on his lonely island was dependent upon the tools and equipment that he saved from shipwrecks, and that were the product of other men’s labor.  So, also, the pioneer farmer had to maintain some kind of relation, however infrequent and slight, with the outside world.  Moreover, he had to pay for his comparative independence by many privations.  He had all the wants described in the preceding chapter, but he had to provide for them in the simplest way possible, and often they were hardly provided for at all.

THE GROWTH OF INTERDEPENDENCE

As soon as a number of people come to live together, even in a pioneer community, it is likely that some members will have a knack for doing certain things of use to the community better than others can do them.  Thus one man may be especially skillful in making axe handles.  In time, the entire community comes to depend upon him for its axe handles.  In addition, he probably makes other tools and does repair work of all kinds.  This requires so much of his time that he does little or no farming, and depends upon others for his food supply.  So in a course of time the community has its blacksmiths, carpenters, shoe-makers, teachers, storekeepers and doctors upon whom it depends for their special kinds of service, while each of them depends upon others to supply the wants that he has neither the time nor the skill to supply for himself.  Thus interdependence develops in the simplest communities.

THE DEPENDENCE ON OTHERS OF 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