8 OUTLINES OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



1 6. Are such results checked automatically ? How ? Promptly ? 

 Before harm is done ? 



17. Is the relation of the farmer to all this entirely passive or can 

 he shape the conditions to his liking ? Explain. 



18. Does advertising alter the amount of food or other farm 

 products consumed? Does it shift the consumption from certain 

 articles to certain others ? 



19. Point out the danger of overestimating the possibility of per- 

 suading the public to consume according to the farmer's needs of a 

 market. 



20. What appears to be the farmer's positon with reference to 

 his own consumption standards? How have they come to be as 

 they are ? Are they changing ? For better or worse ? 



21. Can you point out defects in rural standards of consumption 

 which appear to be due to lack of proper understanding of the prob- 

 lem, e.g., lack of knowledge of sanitary or dietary requirements? 

 other causes ? 



22. How can each of them be remedied? 



23. Point out some important merits of rural standards of con- 

 sumption. 



24. What is the meaning of an efficient standard of living ? 



25. Is the average American farmer's standard low? Inefficient? 



26. Does immigration tend to modify rural standards of con- 

 sumption ? How ? 



27. Is a rise in the price of farm products reflected in the farmer's 

 standard of living ? How ? 



PROBLEMS 



1. Look up Engel's Law (in Ely's Outline of Economics or else- 

 where). Do you believe that the proportions which Engel found 

 between the various classes of expenditures would hold for American 

 rural families? How and why are they modified? Is this change 

 for better or for worse ? (See also selection 28 in this connection.) 



2. "It's not much use to grow better corn and live stock and get 

 more money if we can't use that money to make better homes. And 

 how are we going to have better homes if we don't train the girls for 

 it?" Is this the central need in rural consumption today? Are 

 there other ways of bringing about desirable consumption standards ? 

 What is being done along any of these lines ? 



3. "A few make so much money that they can slight the art of 

 spending without suffering discomfort, but the vast majority would 

 gain as much from wiser spending as from increased earnings. Com- 

 mon sense forbids us to waste dollars earned by irksome effort, and 

 yet we have developed less skill in the art of spending than of making 

 money. Ignorance of qualities, uncertainty of taste, lack of account- 



