ans for enlarging and stimulating the wants and abilities of the whole
people. The very profits themselves are sure to awaken larger enterprise,
and even if the accumulated surplus is distributed in so-called watered
stock, it does not cease to promote production. The wider the distribution
of stock, the more permanent and more generally satisfactory is the
working of the great combination. If employes themselves become sharers in
the business, the true interests of all are likely to be promoted. When
the savings of the multitude can be perfectly united in a joint stock
company, to furnish the capital with which the same people work, the
general conditions of wealth production for all the community are fairly
met.

_Bonanza farms._--An illustration of some effects of aggregation may be
seen in the enormous farms of the wheat regions of America. There
machinery is introduced as far as possible, all work is methodically
planned and executed, and wholesale rates in purchases and in
transportation are secured. The result is that certain staple products,
especially wheat, are raised at a cost far below the average cost to
moderate farmers. The result is large profits upon the capital invested,
in spite of the fact that such farms do not make best use of soil
fertility and certainly do not maintain the best condition of soil for
future use. This, however, is due rather to the nature of pioneer farming,
which makes immediate use of the powers of the soil, than to the nature of
the management. It is conceivable that the same ingenuity may continue the
development of large farms under greatly improved agriculture. In that
case the general effect will be much more widely felt than now. So far it
seems that bonanza farming is confined to a very few lines of production,
where everything is bent in the direction of lessening labor instead of
benefiting the soil or making homes.

There is no question as to the general advantage of small farms in making
farm homes. It is a question whether the general improvements in
agriculture, except in machinery and its use, have not come from the
diligent ingenuity of the small farmer in making most of his own acres.
Ben Franklin said, "The best manure for the farm is the foot of its
owner." The interested constancy among small farmers certainly develops
both character and ability in any country. This fact has probably been one
reason for the small farms of large parts of Europe. One-third of Fra