There are some advantages to everybody knowing everybody... and their business.
In the early '70s Joe Kelly's barn burned, I heard it was kids playing with matches. It's hard for people who never lived in a farming environment to grasp what a horrific tragedy a barn fire is. Not just the loss of a building, and more than the death of some livestock. It's a loss of the accumulated fruits of the past years labor, like your boss says he wants last years pay back. Oh and half wage for the next few years.
They had trouble getting enough water on it to kill it completely, so Rodiman pushed his D-8(they go any damn place they want), through the woods to finish the job.