122 BOARD OF AGRICLTLTURE. [P. D. 4. 



FUNCTIONS OF A STATE BUREAU OF MARKETS. 



ALEXANDER E. CAIs'CE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, MAS- 

 SACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 



The address of Mr. Gilbert to 'uhich we have all listened 

 with interest indicates two most significant things: (1) the 

 tremendous scope of a new field of agricultural study, — the 

 marketing of farm products, a field of overwhelming importance, 

 but one scarcely touched by our agricultural teachers and 

 leaders until a very few years ago; (2) the remarkable interest 

 and activity of our Federal government in bringing about a 

 more economical and efiicient system of marketing the products 

 of the soil. 



The Day of the Economist. 



To a student of agricultural economics this movement is a 

 source of much gratification. The marketing problem, large as 

 it is, is but a fractional part of the field of agricultural eco- 

 nomics. In America it is a new subject; even to-day men ask 

 what it means. When I came to Amherst eight years ago I 

 was a stranger in Israel teaching strange doctrines. It was the 

 day of the doctrine of two blades of grass, of "consume what 

 you produce and produce what you consume." The tremen- 

 dous production of farm products which had to be sold at a 

 loss, and the sad awakening of the raise-what-you-consume men 

 when they found other districts offering articles cheaper than 

 they could be raised at home, have forced producers to give 

 attention to quality, price and profit rather than quantity. 



On the other hand, the increased cost of living has made the 

 consumer roar and the saviors of the people imagine vain 

 things. The consumer's dollar, which looks like the classic 30 

 cents to the farmer, has called out everybody — economists, 

 socialists, legislators, country store philosophers, hobby riders 



