THE STUDY OF AGRICULTURAL 
ECONOMICS. 
ADDRESS TO SECTION M (AGRICULTURE) BY 
C. 8. ORWIN, M.A., 
PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 
For the third year in succession the University of Oxford has been 
honoured by the selection of one of its resident members for the office 
of President of the Agricultural Section of the British Association, 
and on the occasion of the Edinburgh Meeting it may be of interest 
to recall that historically, at all events, the study of Agriculture and 
Rural Economy at Oxford takes second place to no university with 
the single exception of Edinburgh. I am not a scientist in the 
commonly accepted sense of the word, and nothing but my deep con- 
viction of the need for wider recognition of the importance of the 
study of economics in connection with agricultural research work 
could have overcome my reluctance to assume an office in which I 
have been preceded by such a long line of distinguished men. 
It is now about five-and-twenty years since research and educational 
work in agriculture began to be developed seriously in this country. 
Since that date a very oreat deal of effort has been expended in inyesti- 
gating the forces by which plant and animal life are controlled, and 
to bring natural science to ee in every way upon the problems of 
food production. Work along these lines has been productive of most 
valuable results to the farmer; but at the same time the fact has been 
overlooked that, when all is said, farming is a business, and if it is to 
succeed as such it must be carried on with a clear regard for the 
economic forces which control the industry. So, whilst desiring 
nothing but the fullest recognition of work in the fields of natural 
science applied to the investigation of farming problems, I must express 
without any qualification the view that the equal importance of the 
study of these economic forces has never been adequately recognised. 
Educational and research work in agriculture which takes no account 
of fhe dominant importance of economics must always be ill-balanced 
and incomplete, for farming business requires for its proper control a 
consideration of human relationships, of markets, of transport, and of 
many other matters which should come within the purview of the 
economist, as well as, or even more than, a cohsideration of questions 
regarding the control of plant and animal growth with which the 
scientist, in the limited sense of the name, is concerned. No one 
could wish to deny the need for the close and continual study of the 
soil and the means by which it can be made to produce more abundantly ; 
