204 EXl'KHIMKNT STATION RECORD. 



reasoiiahlo one, or is our iiuliistrial syslcni unnecessarily cumbersome 

 and expensive to both the i)r(Hlucer and the consumer? Questions 

 of this sort are highly important, and sc^m eminently appropriate 

 subjects of investigation. To be conchisive, such investigations need 

 to be made bv men com])etent to phin and conduct them in a scientific 

 manner, and to Aveigh the (hita impartially in the light of existing 

 conditions. The public needs to have this information from a source 

 it can rely upon, and it needs it not only for its protection from 

 imposition, but that it may apply correctives intelligently and pos- 

 sibly simplify and cheapen the j^rocess of distribution. A great deal 

 has been done in the latter direction by private interests which have 

 entered into cooperation for that purpose. 



The lack of data and of knowledge of the facts are at once con- 

 spicuous when a (piestion involving the economics of agriculture is 

 approached. In very few States and for very few branches of the 

 industry have there been anything approaching systematic and 

 thorough economic studies on the extent and cost of production, the 

 machinery and expense of distribution, and the effects of these 

 factors on the condition of the farming industr}^, on the condition and 

 opportunities of the people engaged in it, and the broader relations 

 of these matters. Such data as are to be had are fragmentary and 

 incomplete, and are not satisfying to a thorough student. They do 

 not enable economics to be taught from a rural point of view in 

 any complete w^ay. 



Facts to be of value and a safe basis for reasoning need to be cor- 

 related and given their proper weight. Isolated facts are dangerous 

 things when considered out of their environment and given undue 

 proportion. Science is knowledge classified, correlated, and arranged 

 in an orderly manner, and the office of science is to study the sequence 

 of phenomena. In agricultural economics very little of the knowl- 

 edge on which to base a science is yet available, and very little of the 

 study of the sequence and relations of phenomena or facts to furnish 

 a bod}' of scientific investigation is to be found. 



This constitutes one of the present deficiencies in the rounding out 

 of agi'icultural science and the fund of knowledge. The lack of this 

 knowledge halts the development of the condition of the farmer, for 

 it retards the day when industry and ability on the farm yield the 

 return which they reasonably should, and prevents the farmer and 

 his industry from being assigned to the position they are entitled to 

 occupy. The producer lacks the information he should have to give 

 greater independence and security to his business. 



There should be, it would seem, some local agencies which should 

 know the exact status of the agricultural industry at a given time, 

 which should study it in its economic relations. This does not lie in 



