10 INTRODUCTION 



Of the physicians who undertook to minister to the farmer's ail- 

 ments, two schools may be distinguished. The homeopaths, who 

 believed that like cures like, attacked the ill of over-production by 

 seeking to remove every obstacle that stood in the way of maximum 

 yields of grains, of animal products, or of textiles. Such were the 

 efforts of the numerous departments of agriculture, agricultural col- 

 leges, and experiment stations, which were being established one after 

 another in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The allopaths, 

 on the other hand, put their faith in stronger draughts of remedial 

 legislation, such as cheap money (whether silver or greenback), the 

 curbing of the railroads, -tariff legislation, the lightening of taxation, 

 and the curtailment of banks' and mortgage-holders' powers. 



It might be hazarded that the greatest immediate benefit to the 

 ^patient came from the old-fashioned process of "bleeding," whereby 

 a considerable volume of country population was drained away to 

 the cities during the years of agricultural depression. But, however 

 that may be, agricultural economics has emerged as an eclectic move- 

 ment superseding the two earlier schools. Since agriculture aims, 

 not at bigger corn and fatter hogs as such, but at larger financial net 

 returns, and since even political measures of reform must depend for 

 their effectiveness and permanence upon their economic soundness, 

 the hope of both the farmer and his friends has come to be placed 

 more and more upon a broader and deeper understanding of the price 

 relationships involved in the carrying on of our commercialized busi- 

 ness of farming. 



As already indicated, our professional economists have taken com- 

 paratively little part in the formulation of an agricultural economics. 

 Whether because they were not sufficiently familiar with the data of 

 scientific agriculture, or because they were too much engrossed in the 

 study of the many pressing problems of our bewilderingly expanding 

 industrial life, they have as yet sent but few adequately trained 

 workers into the rural field. The task was accordingly undertaken 

 by those already engaged in the work of instructing and helping the 

 farmer. The need for economic readjustment came most pressingly 

 to the attention of the men who had been commissioned first to work 

 out a better technique of farming. Foremost among them were the 

 administrative officers of our agricultural colleges and bureaus of 

 agriculture, both state and national. These men did their splendid 

 best to meet the new demand. But it can hardly be denied that much 

 of the discussion which resulted has been of a decidedly inadequate 



