Part I. 



RURAL ECONOMICS 



SOME ECONOMIC TERMS 



Economics Defined. The first question that naturally 

 arises in our minds when we take up a new subject is what is 

 the subject about. If we examine text books on general econ- 

 omics, we find that the topics treated are those about which we 

 read every day in the newspapers and magazines ; as, for ex- 

 ample, labor and wages, child labor, labor unions and their pur- 

 poses, strikes and boycotts, capital and interest, banks and 

 banking, exchange, land and rent, tenancy, conservation of 

 natural resources in mines, forests, streams, fertility of the 

 soil, etc. We note, too, that all of the topics have something 

 to do with wealth. This fact leads us naturally to the defini- 

 tion of economics as "the social science which treats of man's 

 wants and the goods (commodities and services) upon which 

 the satisfaction of his wants depends." A simpler definition 

 is, "Economics is a study of man's efforts to get a living". 



Rural Economics. Rural Economics treats of those ac- 

 tivities of man which have to do with the making and spending 

 of a living in the country. In a constructive sense it is con- 

 cerned with the business life of rural communities, in order 

 that farm crops may be improved in quality and quantity, that 

 farm products may reach the consumer with the least pos- 

 sible cost of transportation and delivery, that the business of 

 farming may be made more exact through the aid of science, 

 that accounting may take the place of rule of the thumb meth- 

 ods of cost computation, that those who will make the best 

 use of the land be encouraged to remain upon the farms, and 

 above all that the future may be provided for by making the 



