200 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



himself of thorough scientific knowledge of agriculture. To be 

 a thoroughly equipped, scientific farmer probably requires a 

 higher education, certainly a more complete scientific education, 

 than any of the learned professions, with the possible exception 

 of medicine. Such a farmer must obviously know something of 

 botany, zoology, chemistry, physics, and surveying ; and some 

 special and difficult branches of these sciences he must know 

 extremely well. Principles of plant and animal breeding ought 

 to be thoroughly understood if that were possible, but it is not 

 possible now because there is no one, either within dr without 

 the agricultural class, who thoroughly understands them. He 

 must know something of such difficult subjects as soil chemis- 

 try, soil physics, the bacteriology of the soil, food values and 

 the balancing of rations, and a number of other subjects, each 

 one of which is engaging the attention of scientific specialists, 

 though of course no single human being, farmer or otherwise, 

 can really become a master in all these subjects. 



There is an old saying, current among farmers, that what 

 one does not have in one's head one must have in one's heels. 

 This sums up very tersely the importance of management as a 

 means of economizing labor. There is no doubt whatever that 

 more labor is wasted on the farms of this country through bad 

 management than through any other single course. This, how- 

 ever, will be the theme of a special chapter on management. 



A progressive attitude. Perhaps the greatest obstacle to the 

 effective economy of labor is found in the character of the 

 farmers or the farm laborers themselves. More striking illus- 

 trations of this can be found in older countries, or in countries 

 which are ruled by hidebound custom, than we are likely to find 

 in this country. The sheer unwillingness of farm laborers in 

 oriental countries, and in some of the Latin-American countries, 

 to change their methods of work is sometimes a factor to be 

 reckoned with, like the character of the soil or the climate, and 



