Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
than formerly, there is still enough margin to support the family. These fortunate
farmers are more numerous than most people realize. They usually keep quiet so
[they] are not easily manifest. The records in our offi ce show, however, that they
are not as infrequent as some people suppose. Many of them are willing to give
large credit to the farm advisors whose advice they have taken and whose work has
resulted in the maintenance of many a farm family which would otherwise have
failed. (September 1930, 2-3)
Of course, he was right; Cooperative Extension could only do so much
to help farmers become more effi cient and make the best of their farms.
But a crucial point in this advice is Crocheron's link between good farming
practices, inspired by the knowledge of Cooperative Extension advisors,
and the implementation of these techniques on good-quality, large
pieces of land. By emphasizing the quality and size of the grower's farm,
Crocheron implied that only the larger growers, with more capital for
land and other resources, would be successful over the long term.
Creating a Context for Industrial Agriculture
For many growers, advisors' new, effi cient methods were not transparently
better than standard practices. Spending extra money and time to increase
the effi ciency and productivity of a given acre of land did not always seem
like the best of ideas, especially in times of big surpluses and low commod-
ity prices (Danbom 1979, 89-91). This was especially true during the early
1930s, when the Great Depression's effect on commodity prices took a toll
on even the largest growers, and many sought new crops to plant or other
ways to survive this long downturn in prices. Increased effi ciency and
productivity were a harder sell for Cooperative Extension during this
time, and yet Crocheron stuck to this solution as the only practical way
to improve the economic prospects of California growers. In this excerpt
from a report in 1931, he emphasizes the importance of effi ciency regard-
less of the size of a grower's farm:
For the last fi ve years we have had people rise up to remark that this business of
getting more pounds of butterfat per cow, more eggs per hen, more peaches per
acre, is only making things go from bad to worse; that increased effi ciency has
created the surplus, and that the Agricultural Extension Service, by bringing increased
effi ciency has brought a surplus. . . .
Does increased effi ciency necessarily mean the creation of a surplus? Is the effi -
cient man the real surplus producer? We think not. We believe the “marginal man”
