exchange), capitalistic agriculture, the rise of land 

 values, rural credits, farmers' organizations with their 

 economic, social, intellectual, and political functions, 

 the rural school, the rural church, and good roads: 

 these are only a few of the vital problems which 

 should be considered from a historical and compara- 

 tive as well as from a purely technical point of view. 

 Rural problems will henceforth demand a superior 

 type of statesmanship, for we are to-day rapidly 

 passing through a great transition period of our his- 

 tory. We have emerged from the period of coloni- 

 zation, of exploitation, of extensive development, and 

 have entered the period of intensive development. 

 There is a greater need than ever for calling upon 

 the wisdom and experience of the past in the work- 

 ing out of a sound and farsighted rural economy. We 

 are in need of a scientific treatment of the economic 

 history of agriculture in this country to help supply 

 this need. 



INDICATIONS OF AN AWAKENING INTEREST IN OUR 

 AGRARIAN HISTORY. 



The subject, thus outlined, presents an inviting 

 field for study and investigation. Although it has 

 been neglected, not to say almost entirely ignored, by 

 our nation's historians, it is encouraging to note an 

 awakening interest in this direction. Some of the 

 leading institutions of the country, particularly 

 Harvard, Wisconsin, and Columbia, are directing re- 

 search work in this field, and a few of these institu- 

 tions have begun to offer courses on the subject. At 

 the Iowa State College, for example, such a course is 

 offered, and it is required in the various departments 

 of the division of agriculture, in addition to the course 

 in agricultural economics. Mention should also be 

 made of the work now being undertaken by the de- 

 partment of economics and sociology in the Carnegie 

 institution at Washington, under whose auspices a 

 rumber of published and unpublished monographs in 

 the economic history of American agriculture have 



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