DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 163 



KEPOKT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS. 



To the President : 



The follow-in g is the report of the Department of Economics for the 

 year 1916 17. 



The total number of enrollments in the department for the year num- 

 bered 1,042, distributed as follows: By terms: Autumn, 433; Winter, 

 210; Spring, 371; Summer, 28. By Classes: Graduate 3; Seniors 180; 

 Juniors 291; Sophomores 297; Freshmen, 268. 



The total number of hours taught during the year by members of the 

 department equalled 1,249. This was divided among the four sessions as 

 follows: Autumn, 537; AVinter, 516; Spring, 336; Summer 60. 



A comparison of the statistical statement given above with those of 

 the reports of previous years will show a number of omissions and varia- 

 tions calling for explanations. The large decrease in enrollment in the 

 department, for example, and the decrease in hours taught by mem- 

 bers of the department have the same explanation; namely, the division 

 of the department last year into one of History and another of Economics. 

 We no longer teach History or Political Science, and the enrollments in 

 these subjects are therefore not included in this report as was formerly 

 the case. The customary distribution of enrollments and class hours 

 among the various subjects is also omitted from this report and for the 

 same reason already given, namelj" the division of the department. As 

 noted before, this has left only the subject of Economics, consequently 

 no gain is made by the utilization of the subject classification of former 

 years. 



Three new and specialized courses in Economics — Kural Organization, 

 Marketing of Farm Products and Accountancy were given this year and 

 the number of elections in all of them was very gratifying. Two new 

 subjects in economics were also given in the Home Economics division 

 as the result of the adoption of a new curriculum for the division. 

 The increasing applicableness of economic principles to the every day 

 or practical affairs of life is strangely evidenced by the demands made 

 everywhere by the public upon economists to explain these principles. 

 The head of this department, for example, has given upon invitation, 

 no less than fifteen addresses ujjon different sorts of economic questions 

 in various parts of the state since making his last report. Rural credit 

 has been the subject most fi'equently spoken upon but High Cost of 

 Living, Rural Cooperation, and the Dependence of War upon Agriculture 

 have also been discussed. 



The economic" side of agriculture is indeed receiving a great deal of 

 attention from the farmers of the state in many ways at the present 

 time. The forming of cooperative associations for business pur|)oses has 

 never before been so rapid in nmny regions as during the past year. 

 Usually these associations are for marketing purposes but, whatever the 

 object of their creation, their growing numbers demonstrate clearl}^ 

 that farmers have at last learned a method of acting in unison along 

 the lines of some one or the other of their economic interests. The 



