WHAT CAPITAL is 447 



been outlined. We desired to give you, as you worked on 

 these exercises, the skill to earn money for yourself. Out- 

 side of school, learning and earning go together. The more 

 we learn of what is really useful in our work the more 

 we shall probably earn. The amount, however, depends in 

 large measure on whether we are good managers or not ; 

 in other words, on whether we have good judgment and 

 show business ability as well. 



American farmers have often been criticized for their 

 lack of good business sense. Many of them do not keep 

 records of receipts and expenditures of important farm 

 operations. Many are at times extremely radical, then at 

 other times extremely conservative, on scientific and finan- 

 cial questions. The only thing that has saved them against 

 the competition of the world has been their boundless re- 

 sources and their exceptional opportunities. Up to within 

 a few years it was possible to waste our soil, destroy our 

 forests, and neglect our capacity for developing and extend- 

 ing credit in rural sections, without feeling the effects of 

 mismanagement severely either in the foreign or in the 

 domestic trade. But these days are gone. 



Farming is now coming to be more and more a business 

 enterprise the world over ; and it is our plain, patriotic 

 duty as Americans to recognize the necessity of skillful 

 management in directing this business, just as we have for 

 years recognized it in the organization and direction of 

 our industrial affairs. 



At bottom our agricultural problem is largely an eco- 

 nomic one. It concerns capital and all the agencies, both 

 individual and collective, which can attract and manage 

 capital under conditions that will promote and not pre- 

 vent rural development. We will first inquire as to 



326. What is Capital? Capital, according to Adam 

 Smith, is all resources from which one expects revenues. 



