INTRODUCTION 13 



action after the Civil War when financial distress 

 followed the rapid decline in prices and the economic 

 effect of deflation. 



The period since the Civil War has been one of 

 great agricultural expansion, but agriculture has not 

 experienced uninterrupted prosperity. In fact, the 

 farmer has repeatedly passed through periods of 

 uncertainty, great anxiety, and financial distress. 

 Bankruptcy has befallen many farmers and repeat- 

 edly threatened many others. This situation has 

 produced great discontent. The numerous periods 

 of financial depression have in every case aroused 

 the farmers to action. They have resorted to vari- 

 ous expedients at different times as new situations 

 have confronted them. 



In subsequent chapters of this book an effort will 

 be made to sketch the methods the farmers have 

 adopted in an effort to overcome their economic 

 difficulties. As a background to the later farm 

 movements, the reader's attention will be direcieu 

 briefly to the history of agrarian agitations of the 

 past. It will be observed that while the social situ- 

 ation has changed from age to age, the conditions 

 that have created discontent, and the problems that 

 have aroused farm groups to action, have all been of 

 an economic nature. There is, therefore, a thread 

 of continuity running throughout agrarian history. 

 The student of agricultural economics and sociolog- 

 ical problems may profitably spend some time in a 

 review of early agrarian history as a background to 

 the problems of agriculture at the present time. 



