550 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and lus status in the community; whether it is advisable in the general 

 interest of the state, to encourage the development of large or small 

 farms; whether the methods in vogue in some other industries, the 

 combinations of resources and capital sometimes developing into 

 'trusts' can be successfully adapted and applied to agricultural pur- 

 suits ; the building up of infant agricultural industries, by government 

 aid, or the extension of the principle of protection to agricultural pro- 

 ductions, and dependent industries ; whether, on the whole, it would be 

 better to make for a complete specialization, or whether it would be 

 more advisable for each farming community to raise its own necessities 

 — these are but some of the problems which are directly connected with 

 the soil and the soil management, and are also social and economic 

 questions. It therefore seems appropriate to those of us who are 

 interested in this study from the point of view of the natural sciences, 

 or applied science, as it is the fashion to call it now-a-days, to enter a 

 strong plea that our efPorts should be seconded by a more serious atten- 

 tion to this same subject from the professional economist and sociologist 



