PREFACE 



The following topical studies and references have 

 been prepared in connection with a course of lectures 

 on the economic history of American agriculture which 

 I have been giving at the Iowa State College of Agri- 

 culture and Mechanic Arts during the past six years. 

 They are now presented in published form with the 

 hope that they may serve to encourage the further 

 establishment of similar courses of instruction in 

 other institutions of learning, and thereby stimulate 

 a more active interest in a most important, though 

 hitherto neglected, phase of our national develop- 

 ment. 



Louis B. SCHMIDT. 



Ames, Iowa. 

 July 15, 1919. 



