SELECTED READINGS IN 

 RURAL ECONOMICS 



INTRODUCTION 



THE STUDY OF RURAL ECONOMY 



THERE is a saying that the specialist who is only a specialist 

 is a very poor specialist. The purpose of this saying is not to 

 discourage specialization but to make better specialists. It fits in 

 with that ideal of education which requires that the educated man 

 should know everything about something and something about 

 everything. This remark applies to the agricultural specialist as 

 well as to any other kind, and this ideal of education applies to 

 the educated farmer as well as to any other type of educated man. 

 In opposition to the argument for a broad education for the 

 farmer, the question is sometimes pointedly asked Will this 

 or that kind of knowledge enable the farmer to grow more corn 

 or more potatoes ? The answer is that even though it does not, 

 it is still worth while provided it enables the corn and potatoes 

 which he does grow to feed a better man. 



It is fair to say, however, that the first attempt to broaden the 

 farmer's education should be to broaden his knowledge of his own 

 occupation or profession. In order to broaden his education it is 

 necessary that he study something else besides the technical 

 process of growing his own crops, but it is not necessary at once 

 or in the very first instance to jump to the opposite extreme of 

 making him skilled in all the learning of the Egyptians. It is my 

 purpose in this discussion to argue that the first effort in broaden- 

 ing his education should be to give him a wide historical knowl- 

 edge of agriculture as practiced in different ages of human history 



