SOUTHERN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS DECEMBER, 1979 FARM SIZE AND RURAL COMMUNITIES: SOME ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIPS

Although American agriculture has been lished industry. Crop and livestock production adopting new technology for more than 100 is diversified; farms differ in size and struc-years, the rate of adoption has greatly ac- ture, including part-time, single family, and celerated in recent decades. This technological partnership arrangements. The towns within revolution has resulted in important changes the area include a crossroads village and the in rural America. Mesthene [12] points out the seat of county government which is also the impact of technological change on society; site of a recently built plastic-ware fabrication Donaldson and McInerney [6] examine the im- plant. A regional trade center is adjacent to the pact of machinery technology on agricultural study area. ' Major cities are 120 and 220 miles adjustment. from the study area, in nearly opposite direc-When farms increase in size and decrease in tions. number, employment opportunities in agricul- Examination of census and other statistical ture are reduced [1]. This change, in turn, af- data showed that the community has recently fects the viability of towns in farming areas, as undergone changes in farm size structure, agri-shown by Heady and Sonka [8] and by Hamil- cultural employment opportunities, and popu