2. Simple equity requires that attention be given to those

 whose needs are greatest, and human dignity dictates that

 effort be expended to assist low income small-scale farmers

 to raise their income, from either farm or nonfarm earned

 income, when it is at all possible for them to do so.

 3. An agricultural system that permits small farms provides the

 opportunity for persons to choose small-scale farming or to

 combine farming with off-farm employment as a life style.

 4. Assistance to small-scale farmers will praomte better manage-

 ment and more effective use of a significant body of the

 Nation's natural resources.

 These principles offer a solid rationale for undertaking research,

extension and higher education activity oriented to small-scale farm

families or, for that matter, any other type of activity oriented toward

small farms. This is not to say that it has higher priority than all or

any other activities performed by the public sector. It merely says

that small farm activity appears to fall within the category of legitimate

activity performed by the public sector. How many resources at various

levels of total Federal and State budgets should be devoted to small

farm activity can only be determined through the political process; how-

ever, soae general recommendations with respect to resource levels appear

in the last section of this paper. For any given level of resources

within the agricultural area, a balance will have to be struck between

activities that assure an adequate supply of food and those activities