Februaky 26, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



331 



his gratification at the provision of the section. 

 It is high time, he said, that we began to attend 

 to the building up of American agriculture, and 

 to recognize its basis in science. He expressed 

 his special interest in the teaching of agricul- 

 ture on account of the opportunity it offered for 

 furthering the teaching of natural sciences in the 

 schools. This, he declared, is the great reform 

 needed in American education. The popular in- 

 terest now aroused in agricultural teaching offers 

 en entering wedge in this direction, and gives 

 hope for the accomplishment of even greater re- 

 forms. Country-life development Dr. Eliot pro- 

 nounced "one of the greatest humanitarian move- 

 ments of this aoe. " Our race can not endure 

 urban life and the factory system, he said: the 

 ill effects of it have already been seen. ' ' Hence 

 anything that leads men into the country where 

 they may lead a wholesome existence is contrib- 

 uting to a necessarily humanitarian movement. ' ' 



These remarks furnished an appropriate intro- 

 duction to the vice-presidential address of Pro- 

 fessor L. H. Bailey, on "The Place of Research 

 and of Publicity in the Forthcoming Country 

 Life Development. ' ' The address was essen- 

 tially a plea for the principles of democracy, ap- 

 proached from the standpoint of the public serv- 

 ice institutions for agriculture, and especially the 

 new national work for agricultural extension. 



The other feature of the meeting was a sym- 

 posium devoted to "The Field of Rural Econom- 

 ics." This was participated in by four speak- 

 ers, who dealt with several phases of the general 

 subject. In opening the subject, Hon. Carl Vroo- 

 man, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, discussed 

 "Bural E-conomies from the Standpoint of tlie 

 Farmer." He corrected some of the false impres- 

 sions as to the advantages of high acre yields, 

 pointing out that the plain business question is 

 not how much the farmer could produce if he had 

 no regard for the cost, but how much he can af- 

 ford to produce under present American condi- 

 tions. He showed by statistics that the largest 

 crops do not necessarily mean the largest net in- 

 come to the farmer, and that in years of relatively 

 small production he often realizes quite as much 

 from his crops as in years of maximum yield. 



Secretary Vrooman laid much emphasis on the 

 importance of the problems of distribution and 

 marketing, enforcing his remarks by illustrations 

 from his own experience as a farmer. While ad- 

 mitting the necessity for middlemen and other in- 

 termediaries, he protested against any allied in- 



terest taking more than a legitimate profit from 

 the farmer. He declared that the average farmer 

 is only making wages: he is not making a profit 

 over his wages and the interest on his invest- 

 ment. Until the problems of agricultural eco- 

 nomics are solved there is little encouragement for 

 him in attempting to raise larger crops. "Eco- 

 nomic justice to the farmer and producing 

 classes, ' ' he said, ' ' must be the basis of the higher 

 civilization which we picture. ' ' 



In discussing "Credit and Agriculture," Pro- 

 fessor G. N. Lauman, of Cornell University, 

 maintained that in this country credit has not 

 been generally available to the farmer except at a 

 considerable premium, and that in order to de- 

 velop American agriculture and rural life it must 

 be made feasible for a man to be successively a 

 farm laborer, a farm renter and a farm owner. 

 Short-time credit was held to be a distinctly local 

 matter. The community should rally all its capi- 

 tal to develop itself, and should organize to furnish 

 the basis for a closer association between itself 

 and existing banking and credit facilities. The 

 great social and ethical gains from the small credit 

 unions of Europe was explained, especially in help- 

 ing the small farmer. 



In order to bring outside capital into agriculture 

 it is necessary to meet the demands which such cap- 

 ital makes. Credit, it was declared, "has no better 

 basis than farm values made fluid. ' ' Rightly 

 developed, bonds based on land mortgages have 

 no superiors in the investment field. These, it was 

 explained, should be of small enough denomina- 

 tions to be accessible to all classes and available 

 on all exchanges. But the prevalent machinery 

 for this is too expensive a burden on agriculture. 



Professor Lauman did not advocate leaving the 

 problem to either the government or to private 

 capital for solution, but urged organization. ' ' If 

 agriculture organized to make it possible to de- 

 mand the lowest rates of interest the market af- 

 fords, can not live and develop, not even state aid 

 will prevent its ultimate decay. ' ' 



In a paper on ' ' Marketing and Distribution 

 Problems, ' ' Mr. C. J. Brand, of the Department 

 of Agriculture, presented the needs of the farmer 

 in the way of assistance in establishing a market 

 system which will return to him the true value of 

 the various crops he produces, minus reasonable 

 charges for handling, transportation and the legiti- 

 mate profits of middlemen. He outlined the vari- 

 ous lines of study which are being pursued by the 

 Ofliee of Markets and Bural Organization. These 

 are concerned, in part, with a study of conditions 



