THE EMERGENCE OF THE PROBLEM OF 

 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



Introduction 



The time ordinarily devoted to a general course in agricultural 

 economics does not permit of indulging in any extended survey of the 

 history of agriculture. Yet it seems quite indispensable to a full 

 understanding and a fair appraisal of present situations, that one 

 should have some little acquaintance with the conditions and circum- 

 stances out of which they have grown up. For immediate problems, 

 even though brief and local in their manifestations, are not isolated 

 phenomena, but are new phases or more complex forms of problems 

 that have often vexed the husbandman before. 



All that can be attempted within the scope of this volume is a 

 lightning journey through the ages, glimpsing the most striking and 

 typical of the steps which mark man's progress from the savage state 

 to our present organization of agriculture. This should give at least 

 a sketchy background against which to view current events and insti- 

 tutions a thing quite necessary to the keeping of a true perspective. 

 We have had, in the United States, a remarkable uniformity of agri- 

 cultural experience and organization, with very few antique survivals. 

 As a result, one often finds it necessary to emphasize the obvious 

 fact that agriculture was not, indeed, ordained by the Morrill act 

 and the Ordinance of 1787. Our look forward upon the future 

 organization of agriculture should not be constricted by so brief a 

 tradition as that of the American " homestead" farm of one hundred 

 and sixty acres. Rather it should be oriented by the long glance 

 backward over the whole of the road which society has thus far 

 traveled. 



Such a review can hardly fail to impress one with the painful 

 slowness with which agricultural evolution has been accomplished. 

 Ages were consumed by our savage ancestors in puzzling out even the 

 crudest devices for feeding themselves more amply than was possible 

 through mere passive reliance on Nature's bounty. Even when pres- 

 sure of numbers brought added stimulus to effort, the ancient peoples 



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