ed their work done from someone else rather than put
that much into it.[196]

More cash was needed to buy manufactured goods as the farm became less
self-supporting, but prices for raw materials remained low during the
agricultural slump of the 1920s and 1930s. "Agriculture was much less
distressed when the farm was a self-supporting home," reflected the
_Washington Star_:

But when factories began producing commodities in quantity the
farmer could buy them easier than he could make them at home.

At first glance this looks like an admirable situation. But the
hitch arose when the farmer found himself unable to maintain a fair
basis of exchange.[197]

The result was that many farms of long-standing ownership had to be
mortgaged. In the space of one year (between 1924 and 1925) county
mortgages rose a dramatic 30% and by 1940 they had risen another
20%.[198] Worse yet, a small but significant number of farmers and farm
laborers were beginning to leave the countryside altogether to work in
the city.

[Illustration: The Kidwell farm and Floris vicinity shown in an aerial
photograph taken in 1937. Photo, National Archives and Records Service.]

The county's improved transportation system was partially responsible
for this. Access to markets had been facilitated by surfaced roads but
an easy avenue to city jobs was also opened. Short and regular hours,
higher pay and city amenities were strong attractions to the farmer who
had had to work "from daybreak to backbreak" for a scanty living.[199]
In recognition of this problem, Derr wrote plaintively in his annual
report of 1925:

The worst feature is the fact that our small farmers in the main
have such a hard time to get along that many of them are actually
training their children along more lucrative lines, and occupations
other than farming. Many of these farmers have sold their farms or
abandoned their leases and moved into the cities and are earning
more money per day than they made per week in the country. Another
important factor in this exodus from the farm is the fact that so
many of our farm boys with good health and strength, and not afraid
of hard work are making good in the city.[200]

Continuing on, Derr quoted one discouraged farmer: "One of my daughters
is making 22 dollars a week, and my wife is talking of getting a job
too. My wife can earn more in the city than I am gettin