PREFACE ix 



assigned reading often contains, along with the matter wanted, an 

 equal or greater store of things which the instructor does not care to 

 have brought into the student's view at the moment. How often we 

 find the student coming back with his. mind full of just the wrong part 

 of the discussion read ! For that reason no long readings are presented 

 here: all have been "adapted" to exclude extraneous material and 

 focus attention upon the point at issue. 



As for the general plan upon which the organization of the material 

 has been made, it goes without saying that it follows the older rather 

 than the newer type of economic thought. The decision to use the 

 fourfold division into consumption, production, exchange, and distri- 

 bution grew out of a desire to make the book most serviceable to 

 present users, rather than out of any personal devotion to conservative 

 ideals in the matter of economic exposition. Such teachers of agri- 

 cultural economics as have broken with the orthodox traditions will 

 readily reorganize these materials to suit their own purposes; others, 

 I judge, will find the present arrangement convenient. 



This volume is intended primarily as the basis for a general course 

 in agricultural economics covering three one-hour periods throughout 

 a college year. Personally, I expect to use it in lieu of a textbook (as 

 I have already used much of the material), though other instructors 

 may prefer to use it in connection with a regular text. Much would 

 depend upon local circumstances. If a course in elementary economics 

 is a prerequisite for students in agricultural economics, it would seem 

 that further use of a text could readily be dispensed with. In the 

 case of a class possessed of no previous training in economics, assigned 

 readings may be added either from one of the few treatises on agri- 

 cultural economics or from the many on general economics. How- 

 ever, it has been the intention to include readings covering enough 

 of the fundamentals of economic theory so that a supplementary text 

 might not be called for. A classbook of questions and exercises, now 

 in course of preparation to accompany this volume, will, it is hoped, 

 further develop and organize the materials for classroom use, and 

 facilitate searching and profitable discussion of the economic problems 

 treated in this volume. 



As for other uses, it is hoped that the book may be found a useful 

 supplement to the text or other materials in courses in marketing, 

 rural credits, or the like. Likewise, the interests of the many high 

 schools which are today devoting a large measure of attention to 

 agricultural affairs have been borne in mind. For the giving of added 



