SYLLABUS 



It was explained in the preface to Agricultural Economics that " the 

 decision to use the fourfold division into consumption, production, 

 exchange, and distribution 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.'' For 

 such teachers as might desire to follow another order of presentation, 

 I have here sketched an outline syllabus of a course organized upon 

 a different and, I believe, a better plan. 



I strongly feel that it is worth while to begin with chapter i (even in 

 those courses in which only a short time is available) in order that 

 the student may get his problem in its larger setting before going on 

 to the study of its details. Of course much is glossed over in this 

 first survey because nearly all of the remainder of the subject is implicit 

 in the general statements of this introductory chapter. 



After the idea has been made clear that the farmer as economist 

 is seeking to learn how to administer his affairs in a world organized 

 on a basis of price, it is well to go at once to a study of the general 

 principles of value and price. These are next applied to the cost-goods 

 with which the farmer must deal land, labor, and capital. This 

 leads into a discussion of the work of the organizer, first in the field 

 of production, and secondly in the marketing of his product. This 

 view of the marketing process readily dissolves into the picture of the 

 distributive process as the outcome of a system of bargaining for the 

 services of persons or of productive goods. 



Finally the distribution of the proceeds of the industry into private 

 incomes gives us the condition which determines the possibilities of 

 consumption, and this, explained in terms of its effects upon the health, 

 numbers, and economic motivation of society, completes our circle 

 of thought by taking us back into the market-place where the 

 farmer sells his products and bargains for control of the agents of 

 production. 



While references are made by chapter and selection, the instruc- 

 tor will no doubt find that some readings will need to be broken up and 

 others quite possibly used in more than one connection. Where it is 

 desired to shorten the course to the length of one semester, it will 

 probably be found best to drop chapters vii, ix, x, and xiv, or the 

 larger part of them. Chapter i can be treated summarily and chap- 

 ter iii should not need very lengthy discussion with agricultural 

 students. 



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