rue, there were early
some exceptions to the general rule, where only one kind of crop was
taken from the land. Such was the forest product of masts, shingles,
lumber, and turpentine, and the great southern staple, tobacco, and
later, cotton. The exceptions have been tending to become the rule
in more and more communities. Farmers have been specializing more
and more in the kinds of products to which their farms are adapted in
respect to soil, relation to market, and otherwise. These products are
taken to market and sold for money with which are bought the things
needed for use on the farm.

Sec. 4. #Farming viewed as a capitalistic enterprise#. Thus the farm
comes to be looked upon more and more, not just as a home, but much as
if it were a commercial enterprise or a factory, by which products are
made for sale. This change, to be sure, is far from complete, as the
figures for the average farmer's income show that a large share of the
family living still comes from the farm. It has gone on much further
in some districts than in others, as is indicated in the types of
farming discussed below. But just to the extent that the farmer grows
crops to sell, his outlook on his work undergoes a change. He is
less exclusively a farmer, concerned with the technical processes of
farming; he must be more largely a business man. Like a manufacturing
enterpriser, he buys the factors of production, combines them into
new products, and sells them again. He becomes interested in market
conditions and prices. He grows more commercially-minded. He views
the farm no longer as a fixed area, but one that may be enlarged by
purchase or by rental, and that may be reduced by selling or letting
the less needed parts. One-fifth of farm owners now rent additional
land. In commercial farming the land is not contrasted with capital as
something apart, consisting of the value of the equipment and stock;
but the whole complex of land and other goods is thought of as a
capital-investment. The greater ease of transferring landed-property
in America and the greater mobility of our population have always made
it more natural here than in Europe to look upon land as a capital
investment. This view is now becoming more general as a result of the
commercializing of farming enterprise.

This change has been favored by other influences. Particularly has
the use of machinery and of other equipment, calling for a larger
investment per man and per acre, been ma