May 5, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



685 



special purposes. In the future one of the 

 problems will be the more perfect adapta- 

 tion of the kind of farm to soil and climate. 

 As an illustration, the production of do- 

 mestic animals for meat and for wool has 

 been most extensive on the western border 

 of the developing country for economic 

 reasons, and not because the area is nat- 

 urally best adapted to this enterprise. The 

 Mississippi valley is primarily adapted to 

 the production of cereals and not nearly as 

 well adapted as the north Atlantic states 

 to the production of grass either as pasture 

 or hay. These Atlantic states are particu- 

 larly adapted to growing all kinds of trees 

 and of grass. In the course of time, there- 

 fore, we may expect that the production 

 of live stock will become more important 

 in the east. Out of this grow some imme- 

 diate problems. At present, live-stock hus- 

 bandry in the east can be carried on eco- 

 nomically only when large tracts of land 

 can be purchased at low price. It is pos- 

 sible to purchase small tracts of land at 

 comparatively low price, but not possible 

 to purchase large areas. More of the live 

 stock will be raised upon small farms with- 

 in the more densely populated districts, 

 with comparatively few animals to a place. 

 This will lead to the question of maintain- 

 ing the improvement in domestic animals. 

 It will mean the gradual substitution of 

 soiling systems for pasturing systems, and 

 this will lead to remoter economic and so- 

 cial changes. 



New industries are to be developed. 

 This calls for special governmental recog- 

 nition. The national Department of Agri- 

 culture aids such new enterprises by giving 

 counsel and investigating the special tech- 

 nical difficulties; but is this kind of aid 

 sufficient? If the government helps new 

 manufacturing industries by giving them 

 special privileges, why not aid new agricul- 

 tural industries by bounties ? If a bounty 

 system were to become a recognized public 



policy (following perhaps the experience 

 with sugar bounties), would it result in 

 undesirable social and economic changes? 

 The money grants to agriculture are only a 

 fair offset to special privileges given to 

 other industries. 



THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROBLEMS. 



'We are now returning to the farmer, 

 although still holding to the farm. There 

 is a distinct recrudescence of the educa- 

 tional point of view. The new emphasis 

 is to be placed on the man rather than on 

 his crops. The farmer is a citizen as well 

 as a farmer; he is an important factor in 

 public affairs. 



The new education must reach the farmer 

 in terms of the whole man — his particular 

 business, his home and its ideals, his rela- 

 tion to good roads, good schools, the church, 

 to social forces, to all that makes up a broad 

 and satisfying country life. We must give 

 attention to the ideals of living, as well as 

 to the ideals of farming. The sanitation of 

 the farm home, the architecture of the 

 buildings (what silent and effective teach- 

 ers buildings are ! ) , the reading, the char- 

 acter of the farmyard, the questions asso- 

 ciated with the bringing up of children, the 

 social and commercial organizations— these 

 are the kinds of subjects that the rising 

 educational impulse must attack. 



All this enforces the economic and social 

 questions relating to agriculture. The 

 greatest problems of American agriculture 

 are not the narrower technical ones, but the 

 relations of the industry to economic and 

 social life in general. Agriculture has not 

 as yet been able to call to its aid in any 

 marked degree those forces and tendencies 

 which have culminated and been of such 

 economic value in the general business 

 world, in the great productive and distribu- 

 tive aggregations. The complete solution 

 of the economic ills of American agricul- 

 ture may not be in cooperation, and yet in 

 both the productive and distributive phases 



