THE SCIENTIFIC FARMER. 



37 



Curriculuras are usually arranged by those without commer- 

 cial experience. I have looked in vain through courses of 

 study in agricultural colleges for evidence of any under- 

 standing of the supreme importance of such knowledge to 

 the farmer producing for the general market. The subject is 

 much better understood by commercial men, who find some 

 knowledge of it essential. The great organizers of industry 

 know a great deal about it. None need it so badly as the 

 farmer, who must bear all the risks of production. In due 

 time the universities will understand its importance, and 

 begin to send out men equipped to deal with it, and with the 

 standard of the lives of the different peoples. 



In so far as one knows the cost of his own products, those 

 of his competitors, and the cost of the transportation which 

 each must bear, he is fairly well equipped as a producer and 

 seller. He can judge what it will pay him to produce. The 

 largest farmers understand these things very well. But there 

 is another side to this marketing problem — the side of the 

 consumers. It is the desires of consumers which create 

 demand. These desires may be stimulated. It is a part of 

 the trade of a good marketer to create desires which do not 

 exist. A wise producer also understands existing demand 

 and seeks to learn whether he can profitably fill it. If he 

 proposes to grow flax, for example, he seeks to learn what 

 qualities are required in flax for different uses, so as to decide 

 whether or not his farm will produce that kind of flax. 



But, in addition to the mere questions of marketing, the 

 farmer's net income is affected in hundreds of ways, by forces 

 which he can not control, but may, if he will, understand. 

 Society itself is a product of an evolution not yet complete. 

 Its development is proceeding according to natural laws, some 

 of which, at any rate, we can perceive. The science which 

 deals with those phenomena of society which most directly 

 affect men's incomes is called "Economics." It considers such 

 questions as taxation, banking, cooperation, transportation, 

 currency, commerce in all its forms, and kindred topics, many 

 of them the subject of political action. The farmer needs to 

 understand these subjects as they really are, not only in order 



