AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS DEFINED AND DESCRIBED 7 



and live stock, and the prices for which the various products 

 can be sold. 



Agricultural economics deals not only with economy in pro- 

 duction but also with the problems of justice in the distribution 

 of wealth among the various classes of society with especial 

 reference to the effect of the wages system, the land system, 

 the credit system, the methods of marketing, the comparative 

 standards of living of country and city workers, and the rela- 

 tive opportunities for accumulating wealth by the different 

 classes, upon the farmer's share in the national dividend and 

 upon the relative well-being of the agricultural population. 

 This subject requires the attention of the agrarian statesman as 

 well as that of the farmer. The farmer needs to understand 

 the economic forces which underlie his success in order to help 

 himself, and the statesman needs to understand these forces in 

 order that he may pass helpful legislation with respect to land, 

 labor, credit, taxation, marketing, etc., and in order that the 

 necessary regulation of the farmer's activity may be carried out 

 with a minimum of reduction in productivity. 



While the economic prinajjies which govern the management 

 ofJaxms can be formlftatea^rt should be borne in mind thai no 

 specific rules can be laid down, which are of general applica- 

 tion. Farms cannot be operated by rule of thumb. What is 

 right practice at one time is wrong at another time, and what is 

 right practice in one place is wrong in another. The best 

 scientific training that could be given to farmers would com- 

 prise a thorough knowledge of the physical and biological principles 

 which underlie agriculture, the laws of economics which relate to 

 agriculture, and a thorough system of accounting for the purpose 

 of testing results on the individual farm. Any system which 

 purports to furnish a complete scheme of farm administration 

 applicable to all conditions, is manifestly either Utopian or 

 fraudulent. Such rules must be worked out upon and for the 

 individual farm, or at most for well-defined communities where 

 the conditions are similar. 



Economics is scientifically coordinate with the physical and 

 biological sciences in the study of agricultural problems. The 



