AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS DEFINED AND DESCRIBED 5 



lead the way to success in agricultural production. To under- 

 stand these principles is the reason for studying agricultural 

 economics. 



Of the recent writings on agricultural economics in Europe, 

 that of Jouzier, a French writer, may be taken to illustrate the 

 content of the phrase. "Philologists," says Jouzier, "tell us 

 that the word economics is formed of two Greek words, which, 

 united, mean laws, or rules of the household, that is to say, 

 developing the idea which the ancients attached to the words, 

 the manner of regulating the relations of the different elements 

 composing the resources of the household, whether it be their 

 relations to each other or to the members of the household, 

 hi order to insure the greatest prosperity of the family. 



"The addition of the qualifying adjective, agricultural, does 

 not change the meaning of the word 'economies' at all; it 

 simply limits the domain to which it is to be applied. In 

 place of saying 'the household' we must say the 'agricultural 

 household.' But, as the agricultural household is the farm 

 we shall say that Agricultural Economics is that branch of 

 agricultural science which treats of the manner of regulating the 

 relations of the different elements composing the resources of 

 the farmer, whether it be their relations to each other or to human 

 beings in order to secure the greatest degree of prosperity to the 

 enterprise. 



"These relations consist in (i) relations of contact (supple- 

 mentary, complementary, or competitive) between the different 

 branches of the enterprise, such as, for example, the simul- 

 taneous raising of cereals and animals on the same farm; 

 (2) relations of activity between the different means employed in 

 the process of production, as in the simultaneous employment of 

 machinery and human labor ; (3) in relations of value, between 

 the means employed in production and the product itself; 

 (4) in commercial relations with the people to whom farmers 

 sell their products or from whom they buy goods. 



"The domain of Agricultural Economics, then, covers the 

 examination of each element of agricultural production, whether 

 in connection with any one of the above named relationships 



