vi PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



presumption in writing on so large and difficult a problem, with 

 so little to guide him, the author may be allowed to mention that 

 he grew up on a farm very near the center of the great agricul- 

 tural region of the upper Mississippi Valley, that he later farmed 

 independently on the Pacific coast, that he has made an effort 

 to keep in touch with agriculture and rural life ever since, hav- 

 ing, in addition to the ordinary methods of study, traveled a 

 good many thousand miles on horseback and with a bicycle 

 among the farms of this country and of Europe, and that 

 he has been for several years teaching the subject of rural eco- 

 nomics to classes varying in size from seventy-five to a hundred 

 students in Harvard University. 



The author desires to express his thanks to many of his for- 

 mer students for their helpful suggestions ; to a brilliant group 

 of young instructors in agricultural economics in several of our 

 leading universities, particularly Professors H. C. Taylor of the 

 University of Wisconsin, J. L. Coulter of the University of 

 Minnesota, and George F. Warren of Cornell University ; to 

 Dr. L. G. Powers of the Bureau of the Census ; to Sir Horace 

 Plunkett, the leader in the economic regeneration of Ireland ; 

 to Dr. Howard L. Gray of Harvard University for valuable 

 criticisms ; to Miss A. E. Gardner of Cambridge, Massachu- 

 setts, for help in preparing manuscript ; and, most of all, to 

 his wife for her merciful but unerring criticism. 



T. N. CARVER 

 CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS 



