lity to escape the mill and turmoil of the city, this
industrialization seemed the ultimate compromise. The findings of the
Commission to study the Condition of the Farmers of Virginia (1930) show
the rural values of a most fundamental character to be those most prized
by the agriculturalist:

Among these are: a) The advantages of the country for bringing up a
family ... a greater sharing of responsibilities, a closer knit,
more stable family life.... b) The satisfactions ... of contacts
with forces of nature, of caring for plants and animals, and of
seeing them grow.... c) Greater freedom from various types of
restraints, including somewhat greater control over time and
freedom of personal action; also less intense struggle to keep up
with or ahead of others.... d) somewhat greater freedom from
illness, together with a better prospect of attaining old age. e)
Greater security against unemployment as well as less prospect of
falling into absolute want.[194]

Yet in the post-World War I period the farmer had increasingly to
commercialize and mechanize his business to remain solvent and to
"citify" his life, destroying in numerous instances the standards he
held dear.

"I used to 'farm' some and made money at it; now I'm 'engaged in the
pursuit of agriculture' and can't make ends meet," commented one U. S.
Secretary of Agriculture, echoing the sentiments of many small
landowners.[195] The new farm mechanization was, in many cases, not
particularly well adapted to the family farm in this period.
Gasoline-powered tractors, harvesters and other equipment worked most
economically on the large, level acres of midwestern farms, and the east
coast farmer with modest landholdings could not hope to compete on the
market with the streamlined efficiency of western farms. Mechanized
farming was also capital intensive. Besides the initial cost of
equipment there were expenses for maintenance and fuel. Whereas the
farmer had been able to raise feed for horses or mules inexpensively, he
could not grow gasoline.

Farmers usually had to borrow money to purchase equipment and sometimes
they over-indulged. "I know one or two that did," said Joseph Beard.

When you have several thousand dollars invested in machinery, and
you only use it three, five, ten, fifteen days a year, the rest of
the time it's sitting idle ... it would have been ... better if
they had hir