I9i:0] RURAL ECONOMICS. 69S» 



crops In rotation, the most advantageous utilization of the man anrl horse labor 

 required, and insurance against crop failures and market fluctuations. It in- 

 cludes also the production of live stock as a part of the farm scheme. Vari- 

 ous types and systems of farming are considered, and it is concluded that still 

 more Investigational work needs to be done to make possible further really 

 sclentltic pnx-edure in farm organization. 



Problems of the farm manager, E. Mayland {Jour. Farm Econ., 2 {1920), 

 No. 3, pp. 155-IG2). — The major farm management problems are outlined as 

 being the selivtion of the farm, distribution of the investment, farm outlay, 

 selection of entei'pri.ses, distribution of adjustment of enterprises, and the labor 

 schedule. Each of these problems is discussed in outline, mainly from the 

 point of view of conditions existing in North Dakota, including that of the 

 chances for success of settlers buying land from a certain land company selling 

 under what is known as a " crop, stock, and insurance contract." Under this 

 contract the buyer makes a small initial payment of about 20 per cent of the 

 purchase price of the farm, and he is allowed ten years in wiiich to complete 

 the remaining payments by each year turning over to the company one-half 

 of the proceetls from the sale of crops and live stock and live-stock products. 

 This sum is applied, first, in payment of the interest, and, second, in reduction 

 of the princii)al until paid. The insurance feature provides that the buyer must 

 Insure his life to the company as beneficiary during the period of the contract 

 for an amount equal to his indebtedness. 



Valuation of farm crops, P. A. Boving {Agr. Jour. [Brit. Columbia], 5 

 {1920), iXos. 4, pp. 120, 121; 5, pp. 136. 137).— The author applies the feed unit 

 system to crop valuation in calculating relative acre yields and in examin- 

 ing the market value of various feeds, the feed unit constituting 1 lb. of wheat 

 or its equivalent in other feeds. A table is given, showing the average number 

 of pounds of some of the more common feeds which have proved to be equivalent 

 to one feed uidt, the average number of feed units in 1 lb. of feed, and the aver- 

 age percentage of digestible protein and of amids in the respective feeds. 

 Tabulations are also given for the yield and crop value from one acre of land, 

 the available cattle feed on a good 100-acre farm, the valuation of pasture, and 

 the cost per fet'd unit of different feeds. 



Population, E. M. East {Sci. Mo., 10 {1920), No. 6, pp. 603-624).— In this 

 address, delivered before the American Society of Naturalists December 30, 

 1919, it is asserted that in the United States, taken as illustrating the economic 

 and biological consequences of population pressui'e, the actual population is 

 lagging behind the predicted population, and that the law of diminishing re- 

 turns is even now in operation in regard to natural resources and agriculture. 



" Novel methods of culture, more efficient machinery, new and better yielding 

 varieties are but means of exploiting a limited reserve of soil fertility at a 

 higher rate. . . . After the expenditure of vast sums, after the completion of 

 tremendous tasks of engineering, we can add barely 35 per cent to our present 

 farm area." 



It is said that absolute costs per unit of man power and monetary unit are 

 mounting and will continue to mount because of the diminishing returns im- 

 posed by a .system of agriculture on soil, the present productiveness of which 

 can only be kept up by increasing amounts of artificial fertilizers, and because 

 of competition with new land farming. 



Examination is made of data which show that agricultural production is not 

 keeping pace with the population, a slight decline in the per capita production 

 occurring oetween 1880 and 1890. It is said that a shift from cities to farms 

 must come in the next half century, and that coincident with it will be a simpli- 

 flcatlon of the standard of living. 



