LINES OF PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURE. 355 



waste products and the rapid exchange of commodities, mark the 

 progress of activity in the industrial arts. 



Industrial education in its widest sense, in which mental de- 

 velopment and liberal culture are the leading aim, in connection 

 with a thorough knowledge of the industries in their relations to 

 science, should be promoted as an important factor in the world's 

 progress, and the gaining of technical skill in the handicrafts 

 which have been so largely superseded by modern improved meth- 

 ods should not be allowed to usurp a dominant influence. 



In the struggle necessarily involved in the progress of civiliza- 

 tion and social development, agriculture is fortunately exempt 

 from many of the conditions of production which have a decided 

 tendency to reduce profits in other industries, and aside from the 

 effects of bad seasons, the ravages of insects, and similar agencies 

 which are local in their influence, the competition arising from 

 the rapid increase in facilities for transportation, which give re- 

 mote localities a ready access to the markets of the world, becomes 

 the most important element in determining the low price of farm 

 products. 



This competition can not be evaded, and its tendency must be 

 to prevent any wide fluctuation in the market value of products ; 

 and the farmer can have no reasonable expectation of again ob- 

 taining the high prices for his products which have been realized 

 in the past. As in other industries, the fact of a world-wide com- 

 petition and a resulting small margin of profits must be accepted 

 as a probable constant factor in the farming of the future. This 

 should not, however, be considered as a discouraging outlook, but 

 it should serve as an incentive to activity in developing improved 

 methods that will give satisfactory results under the prescribed 

 conditions of production. 



To those who are familiar with the details of farm practice, and 

 have also a knowledge of the manifold applications of science that 

 are available in every department of production, the direction in 

 which progress can be made in devising remedies for the present 

 diminished margin of profits in farm products is obvious. Atten- 

 tion must be directed to the development of a complete and com- 

 prehensive system of farm management, in which the intimate 

 relations and interdependence of interests, in every department 

 of production, are fully recognized, and every detail of practice, 

 under thorough business methods, is made to yield the best direct 

 results, and at the same time contribute indirectly to the aggre- 

 gate of profits by its favorable influence on other details of equal 

 importance. This will, of course, involve the systematic and con- 

 sistent application of every contribution of science to the art to 

 secure the utilization of every element of production, and the 

 strictest economy in the distribution of the required labor. 



