2 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



those who want it. Economics has to do with production as well 

 as with distribution. If all human wants could be satisfied 

 without any effort, there would be no economic problem, neither 

 of production nor of distribution. But while she has provided 

 abundant opportunities for producing the means of satisfying 

 human wants, Nature has decreed that man must work, — 

 " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." Or to give 

 Virgil's version of the same law, 



The sire of all, great Jove himself decreed 



No work save those that task us should succeed. 



Since it is by work that the wants of men are satisfied, it is of 

 general interest that this work shall be so directed as to yield 

 the largest possible returns in human satisfaction. Viewed 

 from this standpoint it may be said that economics is first of all 

 a treatment of the economy of energy required for the satis- 

 faction of human needs. It is desirable that the energy re- 

 quired for the satisfaction of human wants be used most eco- 

 nomically, not that men may work less strenuously, but that 

 they may live more abundantly. 



Farming is often spoken of as the most independent of all oc- 

 cupation, and it is true that the farmer is less dependent upon 

 his fellow men than is his city brother. But while the farmer 

 is brought into vital contact with other men less frequently 

 than is the merchant or the manufacturer, yet, on the other 

 hand, he is brought into much more vital contact with Nature. 

 The manufacturer, for example, may know each evening what 

 tasks are to engage his attention the next day, but the farmer 

 simply knows what he would like to do, and awaits the dicta- 

 tions of the weather. Socially considered, the farmer may be 

 more independent than the man of the city, but he is certainly 

 more directly dependent upon the conditions set by his physical 

 environment. Much that is characteristic of farm economics 

 as a field of special inquiry grows out of this dependence upon 

 Nature. This is shown especially in the influence of the sea- 

 sons and the laws of plant growth upon the variety of work which 

 the farmer performs. 



