ng relationships in those agricultural
sections where their service is needed the most. The minister of the
gospel, being one of the two or three paid leaders in a local
community, enjoying a measure of the confidence of the people, and
having a large part of his time available for pastoral duties, has the
opportunity and the obligation to tactfully bring to the community the
assistance of these other agencies now provided by the State. When he
has done this he can rest assured that he has accomplished something
that will become the foundation for a far higher, more satisfying
rural life.

Although ultimately the problem of production in agriculture will
probably be a most serious one, because of influences such as
soil-mining, deforestation, and depletion of soil through erosion,
the immediate problems are, rather, the adjustment of production to
demand so that the farmer will be on a more equitable income basis
with other elements in the population. When there is newspaper talk of
again burning corn for fuel, when wool is a drug on the market, and
when farmers' organizations are urging the decrease in the acreage of
cotton, it is idle to talk of agricultural welfare being synonymous
with ability to increase crop acreage or production per acre.
Agricultural colleges and other State agencies have devoted the large
part of their efforts to study of problems of production. The results
of their services to date have been to so improve production as to
hasten the population movement from the farms to the cities. This
tendency to aid production to the point of exceeding equitable demand
has been of economic value to the great centers but it has not
encouraged the continuance on the farm of a large population, nor has
it enabled the farmer to compete with the townsman in maintaining a
satisfactory standard of living. It would seem that the producing
ability of the farmer has been his misfortune, and that his friends
who have taught him to produce more have been his worst enemies.

When a manufacturing plant closes down because it cannot sell its
goods at a given price, or when a retailer refuses to handle goods
below a price believed by many to be excessive, little is said. But
when the farmer tries to adjust his production to demand by limiting
production there is widespread criticism of his conduct. There should
be continuance of efforts to retain the fertility of the soil, to
improve methods of cultivation, and to preven