EDITORIAL. 739 



The development and operation of this apparatus is one of those 

 large undertakings which belong appropriate!}' to the General Gov- 

 ernment to foster. It is a necessarily expensive line of research and 

 lequires a corps of specially trained men. Few of the individual 

 experiment stations are in position to enter upon it, ])ut all can profit 

 alike l)y its findings, wherever thev lire made, for in general they are 

 of as much interest and application in Maine as in California. It is a 

 matter for congratulation, therefore, that the National Department of 

 Agriculture, through its Bureau of Animal Industry, has seen fit to 

 contribute its funds to the development and subsequent operation of 

 this apparatus, and it is earnestly to be hoped that no lack of public 

 funds will prevent the continuation of this cooperation on a liberal 

 basis. 



Rural economics as a subject of undergraduate study has received 

 comparatively little attention in American agricultural colleges. 

 Some phases of the subject, such as the histor}^ of agriculture, farm 

 management, and farm law, have been taught from time to time, but 

 as 3^et there has been no adequate provision for well-rounded courses 

 in rural economy in any of the agricultural colleges. Attention was 

 called to this subject in the fifth report of the conuuittee on methods 

 of teaching agriculture in 1900, and a tentative course in rural 

 economics was outlined." Since then the faculties of our agricultural 

 colleg-es have manifested a somewhat greater interest in the suljject, 

 with the result that a few institutions have begun to develop definite 

 courses of instruction along these lines. 



The College of Agriculture of the Ohio State University includes in 

 its faculty a professor of rural economy, and ofl'ers a course on the 

 histor}' of agriculture and rural economics consisting of "lectures and 

 recitations upon the histor}^ of agriculture, agricultural methods in 

 various countries, cost and relativ^e profits, and A^arious farm opera- 

 tions and systems." A course in "agricultural economics" at the 

 College of Agriculture of the University of Minnesota includes farm 

 management, systems of farming, planning farms, field crops, stock, 

 labor, finances, soils, prices, agricultural statistics, production, 

 exports, wages, land laws, ownership, taxes, and organizations. In 

 the reorgailized progranune for courses of instruction in the College 

 of Agriculture of Cornell University rural economy is given as one 

 of the main branches of agriculture, and courses are offered in farm 

 accounting and the economics and history of agriculture. Special 

 attention is given to this subject at the Rhode Island College, where 

 courses in farm management and rural economics are offered. 



At the University of Wisconsin the instructor in commerce gives a 

 course in agricultural economics which "treats of those principles 



«U. S. Dept. of Agr., Office of Experiment Stations Bui. 99, p. 91. 



