July. 191 



SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 



361 



in the report endeavours to interpret a lariie 

 body of opinion now current in the country. 



The one outstandinoj problem of agricul- 

 ture today is — How to make money out of 

 farming. By that is meant — How can the 

 farmer make a comfortable living for his 

 wife and family? Is it the duty of an Agri- 

 cultural College in its teaching policy to 

 tackle this problem.'' Is it doing it.'' 



No attempt will be made to argue the 

 answer to tlie first question. The writer has 

 assumed that it must be in the affirmative, 

 otherwise it were better to admit at once 

 that the objective of College policy is cul- 

 tural and scientific rather than commercial 

 in character. If it be granted that the aim 

 of College teaching accepts responsibility 

 for this fundamental problem of every 

 farmer in the country in the training it gives 

 its students, then it is proper and necessary 

 to consider how effectively this task is being 

 discharged. 



Such observations as the speaker would 

 present may be set down concisely as fol- 

 lows : — 



1. The actual responsibility or obligation 

 to provide commercial demonstrations of 

 economic efficiency in farm business seems 

 to be generally lacking in College policy. 



2. The policy in practical experimentation 

 does not. speaking generally, appear to be 

 sufficiently related to immediate marketing 

 problems or tested by actual demonstrations 

 of the practicability of results on a commer- 

 cial cost vs. revenue basis. 



3. Scientific investigation is not developing 

 the confidence it deserves for the reason 

 that, while important work has been done 

 by technical men in the field, those who are 

 charged with the direction of such investi- 

 gations at our Colleges would appear to be 

 better trained to pursue purely scientific 

 inquiries than they are to find ways to 

 promote the extensive adoption of accepted 

 scientific methods in the ordinary commer- 

 cial practices on the average farm. 



4. The teaching of marketing work would 

 seem to be too far disassociated from pres- 

 ent day business problems either of produc- 

 tion or of marketing, for the reason that 

 those charged with the responsibility for 

 carrying it on have too little opportunity for 

 relating themselves to or studying at first 

 hand the common or critical problems of 

 those immediately engaged in making a liv- 

 ing on the farm. 



5. The analysis of the above observations 

 and the logic of the inquiry that the Chair- 

 man of this Committee has been able to make 

 during the past year leads to the conclu- 

 sion that the training, purpose and person- 

 ality of the teacher of marketing education 

 is immensely more important than the for- 

 mulation of the courses which he shall offer. 

 The speaker is strongly of the opinion that 

 herein lies the most important consideration 

 in connection with this whole question. In 

 his mind the greatest weakness at the pres- 

 ent time is not in the men who are doing or 

 trying to do this work but in the opportunity 

 that is provided them of intimately associat- 

 ing themselves with the progress and prob- 

 lems of production and marketing in order 

 that they may keep their work in line with 

 present day commercial developments and 

 in order that they may speak with know- 

 ledge, conviction and assurance, AJwost 

 without exception the men with whom con^ 

 versation was held were alive to their re- 

 sponsibilities but deplored the fact that they 

 were seriously restricted in their opportuni- 

 ties to familiarize themselves with present 

 day marketing conditions or even to keep 

 in touch with the business position of the 

 farmer on his own farm. These opportuni- 

 ties represent the sine qua non of advance- 

 ment in commercial agricultural education 

 and given these the men will find the way 

 to do the work. 



By way of recommendation, the Chair- 

 man of the Committee would suggest that 

 the policy in each College should be work- 

 ed out locally. In this connection he would 

 repeat the recommendation made by this 

 Committee a year ago, namely that the work 

 in marketing education should be ^iven by 

 the practical departments. It is only fair 

 to say that with this opinion all the mem- 

 bers of this Committee do not agree^ the 

 view being held by at least one member that 

 the work should be organized under the di- 

 rection of a professor of agricultural econ- 

 omics. The speaker believes, however, that 

 it is a fundamental principle that the teach- 

 ing of commercial agriculture should be as- 

 signed only to those who have or can be 

 given a business responsibility in connec- 

 tion with the organization of their courses. 

 This is an absolutely essential check to 

 thinking and to practice under the test of 

 present day economic conditions. 



