RURAL ECONOMICS. 591 



Rope and its use on the farm, J. B. Freab (Minnesota Sta. Bui. 136, pp. 

 76, figs. 180). — ^This bulletin is intended to cover briefly the materials, methods 

 of manufacture, strength, and use of rope in general farm work, and to give 

 "that information which is necessary for a thorough understanding of rope.'* 

 A section on general information includes the construction of rope, sources of 

 fiber, calculation of weight, care of rope, uncoiling rope, relaying an untwisted 

 rope, principles and elements of a knot, strength of rope, and calculation of 

 strength. 



" Four-strand ropes have about 16 per cent more strength than three-strand 

 ropes. Tarring rope decreases the strength by about 25 per cent because the 

 high temperature of the tar injures the fibers." The breaking strength in 

 pounds for new Manila rope " may be found approximately " by the fornmla 

 S=/)*X 7,200, and for hemp rope /S=D*X. 5,400, where S equals the breaking 

 strengtli and D the diameter in inches. " The safe load is usually regarded as 

 one-sixth of the breaking strength." 



Other sections describe in detail, with many illustrations, preventing the ends 

 of rope from untwisting, knots for tying ropes together, loops at the rope's 

 end, loops between the rope's ends, hitches, halters and halter ties, and splices. 

 The final section takes up blocks and tackle, discussing particularly the lifting 

 force of blocks and maximum and safe loads. A bibliography is appended. 



RURAL ECONOMICS. 



Studies in a^icultural economics {Bui. Univ. Tex., No. 298 (1913), pp. 

 132). — This bulletin contains a collection of papers dealing with economic con- 

 ditions in T«xas. The subjects treated are as follows: The Crop Mortgage 

 System in Texas, by S. J. Joekel ; The Need and Possibility of Cooperative 

 Rural Credit in Texas, by L. H. Haney; Cooperative Agricultural Credit, by 

 W. Trenckmann; Cooperative Production by Farmers, by C. E. Lamaster; 

 Cooperative Marketing of Fi-uit, Truck, and Cotton, Chiefly in Texas, by G. 

 Wythe ; Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union in Texas, by H. L. Voor- 

 hies; Seasonal Industries and their Labor Supplies in Texas, by W. B. Leon- 

 ard : The Farm Labor Problem, by S. M. Leftwich ; A Study in Highway Ad- 

 ministration with Special Reference to Texas' Needs, by M. H. Griffin; Rail- 

 way Rates and Services as affecting the Texas Farmer, by F. L. Vaughan : The 

 Theory and Practice of Speculation on Produce Exchanges, by R. Randolph ; 

 Farm Tenure in Texas, by W. T. Donaldson ; and Our System of Taxation and 

 its Effect on the Farmer, by B. E. Dailey. 



Agriculture. — Questions of the day (X. Cong. Internat. Agr. Gand, 1913, 

 Conipt. Rend., pp. 319-326). — This volume contains abstracts of the papers on 

 subjects relating to rural economics at the Tenth International Congress of 

 Agriculture at Ghent, previously noted (E. S. R., 29, p. 101). 



[Immigration and agricultural workers], J. A. Hill (U. S. Senate, 61. 

 Cmg., 2. Sess., Doc. 282 (1911), pp. 60-69).— According to the census of 1900 

 of the foreign born male breadwinners 21.7 per cent were engaged in agricul- 

 ture, and of those born in the United States of foreign parentage 25.9 per cent. 

 The second generation of every nationality is engaged in agriculture to a 

 greater extent than the first generation, although those of German and Irish 

 parentage, who comprise more than half of the breadwinners, do not show as 

 strong a tendency as those of other parentage. The following bible brings out 

 the fact that for every aged group a larger percentage of the second generation 

 than of the first are farmers. 



