1917.1 PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 31. 43a 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL 

 ECONOMICS. 



ALEXANDER E, CANCE. 



To gain a clear knowledge of the forces, conditions and 

 hence the problems with which the producer must deal is the 

 purpose of the scientific study of agriculture. Some of these 

 forces are biological, some are physical, some are economic. 



The physical and biological sciences "have to do with the 

 harmonious adjustment of the relations between the useful 

 forms of plant and animal life and their physical and biological 

 environment." The science of economics deals with the effec- 

 tive adjustment of the relations existing between plants and 

 animals and their human environment. These relations apply 

 not only to the physical production of crops and animals, but 

 to the price or value of these products, and to the persons 

 engaged in producing, transporting or marketing them. 



The chief end of agriculture and of the scientific study of 

 agriculture is the greatest degree of prosperity (net profits) for 

 the individual farmer and the industry, and the highest well- 

 being of the nation. While this gives prominence to the eco- 

 nomic motive, and makes it the background and justification for 

 scientific study, nevertheless the three lines of investigation are 

 mutually interdependent and equally essential. It is true that 

 crops cannot be grown unless both the physical stnd biological 

 environments are favorable; it is equally true that the supply of 

 labor, conditions of land tenure, credit facilities, markets or 

 agrarian legislation may and do determine production in count- 

 less instances. In the progress from primitive and self-sufficing 

 to commercial agriculture the economic factors become in- 

 creasingly important. 



In the past emphasis has been laid on the study of the physi- 

 cal or biological forces, perhaps to the neglect of the economic. 



