1917] EXPEEIMENT STATION RECORD. 789 



RURAL ECONOMICS. 



Agriculture after the war, A. D. Haix (London: John Murray, 1916, pp. 

 VIII-\-lS7, figs. 3). — The author discusses the present status of agriculture in 

 England and Wales. 



He concludes that " in the interests of the nation as a whole it is necessary 

 to grow at home a larger proportion of the food we consume: (1) As a national 

 insurance in time of war ; (2) to derelop our internal resources and reduce our 

 foreign indebtedness, a matter which becomes of greatest moment in war time; 

 (3) to increase the agricultural population as a specially valuable element in 

 the community. . . . 



" Five methods are outlined for obtaining a more intensive cultivation of the 

 soil and providing employment upon the land. These are the establishment of 

 large industrialized farms working on a considerable area with all the economic 

 advantages of organization and scientific management, the establishment of 

 colonies of small holders linked together by a coei>enitiTe organization, the 

 intensification of the methods of existing occupiers, the reclamation and settle- 

 ment of waste and undeveloped areas, the establishment of certain subsidiary 

 agricultural industries." 



Farming in the blue grass region, J. H. Arnold and P. Montgomery ( U. S. 

 Dept. Agr. Bui. ^8% {1917), pp. 29, fiffs. IS).— It was found that specialized 

 farms, those of the tobacco, stock, or dairy type, moderately diversified, are the 

 most efficient in this region and that the general mixed farms, more highly 

 diversified, are the least eflBcient. While diversity has a vital relation to the 

 profits in this region here as elsewhere, it appears that in the blue grass region 

 the specialized farms have found in moderate diversity the right degree for 

 maximum profit. " Only 34 i^er cent of the farms of this type could be counted 

 as distinctly successful, while the stock-with-tobacco type had about 58 per 

 cent successful. The dairy type, of which there were only 10, showed 70 per 

 cent successful, with a higher average labor income and higher efficiency than 

 any other type. Of the other three types, about 50 per cent of the farms were 

 successful. 



" The general mixed type is evidently organized on the wrong basis to be 

 profitable. It has about the same proportion of its receipts from tobacco as 

 the stock-with-tobacco type, but the percentage area in tobacco is very much 

 smaller, only about 4.4 per cent, while the stock-with-tobacco type has an aver- 

 age of about 8 per cent of its area in tobacco. With the exception of tobacco, 

 there seems to have been a failure to dispose of the crops raised, either by 

 marketing them profitably or by utilizing them to advantage through live stock. 

 Many with lai'ge farms and large capital seem to have been satisfied with bare 

 interest on their investment, which was adequate for a comfortable living. 

 These men made no effort to make the farm a business success. The tobacco 

 area and much of the area of other crops on such farms was in most cases culti- 

 vated by cropper labor, which relieves the owner of much responsibility. . . . 



" The farmer who can command but a small area of land should, in order to 

 make his farm most profitable, specialize in tobacco or, where market conditions 

 permit, in dairying. On farms of from 230 to 360 acres in size the best results 

 can be obtained by organizing on the basis of the stock-with-tobacco type, which 

 emphasizes live stock but cultivates an area in tobacco large enough to utilize 

 labor resources to advantage and to isecure the advantage of diversity." 



Agriculture in the Imperial Valley, W. E. Packard {California [Sta.] Giro. 

 159 {1911), pp. 70, figs. 20). — This circular was prepared to give both new and 

 old settlers in southern California information as to tlie best methods to be 

 followed in farming there. The author describes the soil characteristics, cli- 



